A PAEDOPHILE was today jailed for ten years for abducting a Blackburn schoolboy and indecently assaulting him and other children.

James Alexander Warke, 36, who lived in the Audley area of Blackburn, was found guilty of a string of sex offences at Carlisle Crown Court earlier this year. He was sentenced at Preston Crown Court after reports were prepared into the man who is described as an addictive and obsessive paedophile.

Warke, who started offending in Northern Ireland when he was 15 and has a series of convictions for sexual offences, abducted a 12-year-old boy and went on the run with him earlier this year.

He was eventually arrested in the seaside resort of Worthing on the south coast after a nationwide police hunt.

Warke admitted the abduction and was found guilty of four counts of gross indecency involving the boy.

He was also found guilty of three counts of gross indecency and one indecent assault against two other schoolboys. He was cleared of three other charges after a trial.

Judge Peter Openshaw QC gave a maximum sentence of seven years for the abduction and three years to run concurrently for sexually assaulting the boy. The judge ordered him to serve another three years for the offences involving the other boys.

The judge said: "You are an addictive and obsessive paedophile. The outstanding duty of the court must be to protect the public."

The judge said Warke set out to entice young boys to his flat with the offer of sweets, money and alcohol with the ultimate aim of indulging in his perversions.

The judge said: "This young boy's parents had no idea whether he was dead or alive. One can only imagine their anguish." Warke sold his possessions to pay for coach tickets to take him and his victim to the south coast. When he arrived he tried to find a job and a flat and told the boy he planned to adopt him.

The judge rejected Warke's claims that he was helping the boy run away from home and said he was simply grooming him to carry out indecent acts.

Warke was on licence from prison when he abducted the schoolboy.

He was sent to prison in 1995 after he was convicted of abducting two teenagers from Blackpool from an amusement arcade on the resort's golden mile.

He kept the boys for nine days and even tried to change their appearance by cutting and colouring their hair.

He was sent to Blackburn and was picked up by police in November 1997 after he was spotted talking to two young boys in Accrington town centre.

After the sentencing, Detective Chief Inspector Mick Turner, who led the hunt for Warke, said: "Warke is a career paedophile seeking to satisfy his perversion for abusing young boys.

"This was a nightmare for the family of the young boy who was abducted as they had no idea whether their son was dead or alive."

Warke was also placed on the sex offenders register for the rest of his life.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.