POLICE are continuing to hunt a "dangerous and predatory individual" who is suspected to have committed a serious sex offence while on the run in Scotland.
Ivan Leach, also known as Lee Cyrus, 47, went missing from North Sea Camp open prison in Boston, Lincolnshire, after he failed to return from day release on October 9.
He is believed to have carried out a very serious sexual attack in the Tayside area since he absconded, although police said further details could not be released for legal reasons.
Police are also investigating reports that he may have made sexual remarks towards two young girls and encouraged them to participate in sexual activities with him in Preston 10 days ago.
Detective Chief Inspector Ian Dawson, of Preston Police, said: "Leach is an extremely dangerous and predatory individual who poses a serious threat to members of the public.
"He has previous convictions for burglary, sex offences against a young girl, assault and robberies in which he has targeted elderly people in their own homes.
"We believe he could be sleeping rough and travelling extensively throughout the country.
"I would remind people that he is violent and should not be approached."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article