A PAEDOPHILE pensioner who changed his name so he could flee to Malta to watch child porn undetected has gone to jail.

Roderick MacDonald, 77, was handed a three year and eight month prison sentence on Friday at Brighton Crown Court after being extradited back to Sussex in October.

Previously known as Robinson and of Upper Rock Gardens, Brighton, he was handed a 12 month prison sentence suspended for two years in September 2012 for touching two girls aged five and seven on a yacht in Sussex in June that year.

He was prohibited contact with under 18s as part of a Sexual Offence Prevention Order which meant he was a registered sexual offender for life.

But a month later he changed his name to Macdonald by deed poll and left the UK, breaching the court orders by not telling police and probation officers of his travel plans.

He was tracked down in Malta in October 2014 by Brighton and Hove detectives and the National Crime Agency and arrested with a European warrant.

He appeared at a Maltese court and pleaded guilty to importing and possessing indecent images of children found on his computer at the time and was sent to jail there for 18 months.

When he left prison Robinson, now of no fixed address, was flown back to Gatwick Airport and appeared in court admitting failure to notify foreign travel before leaving the UK, failure to notify change of name, and failure to notify change of address, all in October 2012, which are all requirements of being a registered sex offender.

Of his 44 month sentence, 32 were imposed for breaching the terms of his sex offender registration requirement and 12 months related to his breach of a suspended sentence.

Detective chief inspector Pierre Serra, of Sussex Police, said Macdonald was caught as a result of "close co-operation" between a number of crime agencies, including the Crown Prosecution Service, the National Crime Agency (NCA), and law enforcement overseas.

A NCA spokesman said its Child Exploitation On-Line Protection Centre tracked MacDonald's movements and found his permanent address in Malta.

He added: "This case reflects the ongoing activity of the NCA in tackling the threat of transnational child sex offenders."