March 2003 Fugitive rapist finally jailed Runaway rapist Trevor Masters is finally beginning a 12-year jail term – with nine months added as punishment for escaping to the south of France during his trial. Masters jumped bail in August 2000 as Cardiff Crown Court jurors considered verdicts on 14 sexual and violent assaults on women and girls, (one girl was 11 years old when the attacks began) He drove his LandRover through the Channel Tunnel to the French town of Pau where, after an international man-hunt, he was eventually found sitting in a cyber café. After a two-year extradition fight, Masters was brought back to Britain on Thursday by Gwent Police detectives. Returning to the Cardiff court on Friday, a judge extended his sentence for causing more stress to victims through his escape. Masters with hair cut and no beard Leaving party The 50-year-old farmhand, from Blaenavon in south east Wales, was allowed to stay at a bed-and-breakfast during his original three-week trial, at which he had denied the charges The night before the jury retired, Masters held a leaving party at a pub in the village of Lyonshall, Herefordshire. In his absence, he was convicted of nine offences and sentenced to 12 years, but he later phoned his solicitor to say: “I’m a long, long way away and I won’t be coming back”. There were several reported sightings of Masters in Strasbourg, Malaga and near Nice before Interpol found him in the French town of Pau after being on the run for 10 months. ‘Violent man’ Prosecutor Nicholas Gareth Jones told the court: “He had driven off in his LandRover with his dog and disappeared. “He told police who brought him back that he had been living in a cybercafé during that time.” Judge John Griffith Williams QC, who originally sentenced Masters, told him on Friday: “You have used every avenue afforded by the French legal system to fight extradition. “You chose to do that rather than return to this country to appeal against your conviction.” He told the court: “He is an arrogant self-centred man with no regard for the suffering he has caused.” “He is a violent man who wanted his own way. He raped to satisfy his lust and was indifferent to his victim’s feelings. “The acts of abuse against a 10-year-old girl were particularly depraved.” Obsessed Masters was convicted of rape, three counts of actual bodily harm, three indecent assaults and two attempted serious sexual offences against a woman and two children. The original trial heard Masters, who was born in Kington, Herefordshire, was obsessed with handguns, shotguns and knives. Defending him, Peter Heywood said: “When Masters absconded it was a time of acute stress and anxiety for him. He appreciates that he has done wrong.”