A BUREAUCRATIC blunder has stopped a sex offender being punished for going on the run for three years.

Pavels Zuravskis, 27, who used to live in Malton, sexually assaulted a woman in the town in 2015.

He appeared before York Crown Court on June 8, 2016, and denied the charge. But then he left the UK. A warrant was issued for his arrest in October 2016 when he failed to attend a hearing at the same court.

Last week, he was brought back to the UK after he was arrested in Amsterdam on an European Arrest Warrant.

When he appeared in custody at York Crown Court, he admitted failure to attend court, an offence for which he could have been jailed for 12 months on top of the sentence for his sex crime.

Gerald Hendron, for the CPS, said Zuravskis’ decision to disappear overseas had caused extra stress for the woman he had sexually assaulted.

“This was a very lengthy absence and a serious attempt to avoid justice,” he said.

But Judge Simon Hickey said the extradition warrant didn’t include any reference to a charge of failure to attend court and therefore he couldn’t pass any sentence for it.

Zuravskis was still sent to an English jail. In his absence, a York jury had convicted him of the sexual assault on January 5, 2017, and Judge Andrew Stubbs QC had passed a prison sentence of two years and six months. He is now serving that sentence.