A MAN who fled to Portugal with his partner after assaulting girls in the UK more than 20 years ago was eventually captured when he was stopped for carrying a fruit knife in his luggage on one of his annual flights back to Britain.
While questioning Wladimir Dektereff, 74, customs officers at Heathrow Airport realised that his details matched those of a suspect wanted for the offences, which took place between 1982 and 1986.
Dektereff, who eventually pleaded guilty to one charge of rape and 19 indecent assaults on girls aged between ten and 15, appeared at York Crown Court on Monday.
The court heard Dektereff had run a restaurant in North Yorkshire and had employed one of the girls as a part-time waitress when she was 13.
He began flattering and complimenting her, then touching her. When the girl was 15, she was waiting for a lift home when Dektereff walked in and the rape took place.
One of the other girls was also employed by the restaurant when she was indecently assaulted whilst alone in a kitchen.
Sentencing Dektereff to seven years, Judge Stephen Ashurst said: “You have admitted 20 serious sexual offences. The passage of time does not make the offence of rape any less serious.”
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