Police apologise over victim's paedophile appeal
Police in Manchester have apologised to the victim of a convicted paedophile who made an emotional appeal to trace him when he was already in custody.
Anthony Curran, of Wythenshawe, skipped bail in June after being found guilty of abusing three boys.
One of his victims spoke out on Wednesday to try to help detectives trace the 55-year-old, saying he was a "risk to anyone".
Curran had been in custody in North Yorkshire since Tuesday night.
He is now due to be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on 27 August.
Ch Supt Rob Potts, of Greater Manchester Police, said: "We are extremely unhappy that this has happened and we are looking into what went wrong.
"It appears at this stage that this error has been the result of a breakdown in communication between the people who arrested Curran and the officers who instigated the appeal.
"We have apologised to the victim and his family for any unnecessary distress this caused."
Curran was convicted at Manchester Crown Court in April of 11 counts of indecency with a child - but did not turn up for sentencing on 4 June.
He abused boys between 1999 and 2003 at his home in Wythenshawe and on day trips to Cheshire, Wales and the Lake District.
Two of his victims were aged nine. The other was abused from the age of 11.
The victim who made the appeal through the media said he believed Curran should be "taken off the streets".
The boy said knowing Curran was missing had left him "worried and anxious".
"I know that he knew where I lived, so I didn't know what was going through his mind or what could be happening," he said.