French judge orders UK rapist's extradition
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Your support makes all the difference.A convicted rapist, Trevor Masters, who jumped bail during his trial last summer and fled to France, was ordered by a French court to return to Britain where he faces 12 years in jail.
Masters, 48, who went on the run while a jury at Cardiff Crown Court deliberated 14 verdicts on a series of sex attacks, was ordered to be extradited by an Appeal Court judge in Pau, south-west France. The former farm worker from Blaenavon, south Wales, said he would appeal, and the process may last up to a year. He has been denied bail.
His lawyer, Claude Garcia, had argued that the British authorities had not sent all the relevant paperwork and the extradition should not proceed.
Masters was found guilty, in his absence, of rape, three counts of causing actual bodily harm, two indecent assaults and two attempted serious sexual offences against a child. He was also found guilty of indecently assaulting a girl under the age of 16.
His lawyer said he was fighting the case on the basis that his client did not have the same rights to justice in Britain as he did in France.
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