A former law lecturer who fled the country before being convicted of possessing indecent images of children has reappeared in court charged with raping a girl under 13.

Julian Myerscough, 56, was arrested in Romania almost three years after fleeing an Ipswich Crown Court trial while the jury retired to consider a verdict.

The former UEA lecturer was returned to the UK following his extradition by a Romanian court last week.

Myerscough, formerly of Lowestoft, appeared at Suffolk Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, charged with 11 additional offences, including two counts of raping a girl under the age of 13.

He spoke to confirm his name, age and nationality, before being charged with two counts of raping a girl under the age of 13, four counts of assaulting a girl under the age of 13 by penetration, four counts of indecently assaulting a girl under the age of 14 and one count of assaulting or ill-treating a child to cause unnecessary suffering.

No pleas were entered to any of the offences – all alleged to have taken place between 2001 and 2010 – the most serious of which must be heard in front of a judge.

Prosecutor Lucy Miller invited magistrates to send all matters to the crown court for a plea hearing in four weeks.

Myerscough left Ipswich Crown Court on September 30, 2015, while on trial for 13 counts of possessing indecent images of a child and three counts of breaching a sexual offences prevention order.

He was found guilty of all charges in his absence and sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on September 14, 2017, to three-and-a-half years’ imprisonment.

Two days after his conviction, he was detained in Dublin under a European arrest warrant, but lodged a number of appeals against extradition – culminating in the Irish High Court directing he should be released from prison on 17 August last year.

Myerscough was detained by Romanian law enforcement under a new arrest warrant in Arad County on 27 July.

His extradition was subsequently approved on August 7 and he was brought back to the UK by Suffolk police officers on Monday.

Magistrates remanded Myerscough in custody to appear before Ipswich Crown Court on September 11.