Sex offender living ‘off grid’ jailed after Crimewatch hunt

A sex offender who disappeared after his release from prison last summer has been jailed after walking into a Pembrokeshire police station following a nationwide manhunt that featured on Crimewatch.

Christopher Spelman, 66, was released from a Dorset prison on July 4, 2025, but immediately told staff he had no intention of registering an address with police – a legal requirement for anyone on the sex offenders register. Instead, he made clear his plan to purchase a tent and “live off grid”.

When Spelman failed to contact Lancashire Police to provide his address as required, officers launched an extensive search operation. The hunt for the missing offender included multiple public appeals and a feature on the popular Crimewatch television programme, with detectives urging anyone with information to come forward.

Police believed Spelman was travelling around the UK using public transport and staying at campsites. Officers said he had connections to Merseyside, Manchester, Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire.

The manhunt came to an end on January 3 this year when Spelman walked into Haverfordwest police station and was arrested. It remains unknown how long he had been in Pembrokeshire before handing himself in.

Swansea Crown Court heard that Spelman, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2014 for 12 counts of sexually assaulting a girl under 14. The conviction placed him on the sex offenders register for life, requiring him to notify police of any change of address within three days of moving.

Prosecutor Brian Simpson told the court that one of the requirements of the registration scheme was that the defendant must log his address with police within three days of moving in.

This wasn’t Spelman’s first disappearance. The court heard that after his release in 2016 at the halfway point of his 2014 sentence, he similarly failed to provide his address to police and remained at large for approximately five years before being caught.

Defence barrister Andrew Evans described the case as “an unusual one in many, many ways”. He told the court that Spelman does not accept his guilt regarding the 2014 offences or the sex registration requirements that came with the conviction. Evans said that at many points over the years, Spelman had “made it clear that he wishes to live outside society”.

However, the barrister explained that the defendant had “slowly recognised” that regardless of his grievances with the jury’s verdicts or his views on the original conviction, he remains subject to a court order which he must comply with.

Evans said Spelman now wants to live a more normal life in society with appropriate accommodation, and had asked him to invite the court to pass a custodial sentence which would allow arrangements to be put in place for his eventual release.

Judge Geraint Walters noted there were signs in the pre-sentence report that the defendant wanted to make changes in his life. However, he issued a stern warning that future breaches of the court order would only result in longer prison sentences.

Spelman, who has 11 previous convictions for 29 offences, pleaded guilty to failing to comply with the notification requirements of the sex offenders registration scheme.

With a one-third discount for his guilty plea, he was sentenced to 10 months in prison. He will serve up to half the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.