A SEX offender who was on the run for nearly two years has been jailed after he was found hiding in a homeless shelter in Brighton.

Ian Campbell, 40, was found after a Facebook appeal which led police to one of the double decker buses in Brighton used to house the homeless.

A member of the public recognised him and alerted police.

He was arrested on April 24 at his hideout.

Campbell, of Mountain Ash, Wales, was one of South Wales Police’s most wanted paedophiles.

He absconded after he was released by the courts on probation in June 2017.

He had been living under the false name, John Morgan, and was caught with two mobile phones, a tablet and a laptop which had indecent images of children under the age of 18 - breaching his Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Jim Deans, of Sussex Homeless Support said he remembers Campbell coming to stay on one of the homeless shelter buses.

“He was using a different name at the time, but he was with us for about a month in the end,” he said.

“There was trace of him using the day centres as well in Brighton, I suspect he was in the city for about a month.

“They never check up on people’s identification at these day centres because more often than not the people that use these services don’t have a passport or a driving lisence.”

Mr Deans said South Wales Police sent him a photo of Campbell after a member of the public said he was on one of the bus shelters.

They immediately recognised him and reported him to the police.

“The homeless guys handed over all his tablets and phones that he had hidden in the bus,” he said.

“He’s lucky he was arrested because if the guys saw what he was up to it might have been a different story.

“No one should ever tolerate that sort of behaviour, and these guys on the bus certainly would not have had any of it happening.”

Mr Deans said he was moved when SWP offered homeless people in the shelter support in case they had been a victim of abuse.

He said: “The officers interviewed those on the bus and just made sure they had the support they needed after this arrest.”

Ian Campbell today pleaded guilty to being unlawfully at large after being recalled to prison, failing to comply with notification requirements, possessing indecent images, and fraud offences and jailed at Merthyr Crown Court.

He was jailed for three years.

A Sussex Police spokesman said: “We arrested him on April 24 on behalf of South Wales Police and they came to pick him up.

Detective Inspector Rob Williams, of South Wales Police, said: “He eluded us for a long time having moved away from the area and had been living under a false name.

"But we never give up investigating and we find them in the end - I would like to thank the member of the public whose actions ensured that this compulsive sex offender has been returned to prison where he belongs.”