A former criminal law lecturer who disappeared from court before a jury convicted him of child pornography charges has been detained in Ireland.

Julian Myerscough left Ipswich Crown Court shortly before the jury in his ten-day trial returned with guilty verdicts on all 16 charges on Wednesday.

The 55-year-old former UEA lecturer was detained under a European arrest warrant by Garda officers in Dublin this morning and is due to appear before the High Court later this afternoon.

Myerscough, who is from the Manchester area but previously lived in Lowestoft, disappeared during a recess while the jury had retired to consider its verdict.

He was identified as travelling on a ferry from Holyhead to Dublin at lunchtime yesterday and arrested at a city centre hotel this morning.

Irish police said Myerscough had booked a flight to Budapest, Hungary for later today

He stood accused of making indecent images of children and breaching a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) and was found guilty of all charges in his absence.

Suffolk Constabulary said its detectives would now be working with Garda officials and the National Crime Agency to bring Myerscough back to the UK. A spokesman thanked the public for their assistance with the appeal to locate him.

Myerscough, formerly of Alexandra Road, Lowestoft, had pleaded not guilty to three offences of breaching a sexual offences prevention order between December 2010 and September 2013 and 13 offences of making indecent images of children.

Detective Inspector Paul O’Brien, of the Garda National Protective Services Bureau, said: the arrest was an example of close co-operation between the Irish and UK authorities, and demonstrated the national police service of Ireland’s “robust operational approach to transient sex offenders”.