AN Air Training Corps sergeant who jumped bail while awaiting trial for sexually abusing cadets has been jailed.

James Reading vanished before he was due to face trial two and a half years ago and was only traced last month after he attempted to commit suicide.

He remained on the run until November 20 this year when he was arrested in Bicester, Oxfordshire, after calling the police and threatening to take his own life.

Reading, aged 37, from Plymouth, was a sergeant in the Air Training Corps and second in command of a group of cadets in Devon when he sexually assaulted female trainees.

He was found guilty and jailed for ten years in his absence at Exeter two years ago and had been on the run ever since. At Exeter Crown Court last Friday he was jailed for six months by Recorder Don Tate. The sentence will run alongside his existing term and not add to it.

The recorder told him: 'This was a deliberate offence of absconding going back to June 2012. Thankfully your trial did take place and to that extent justice was done in your absence.

'You were not there and not able to put forward a defence. You are now serving a significant sentence but it seems appropriate to pass a custodial sentence to mark the seriousness of this absconding.'

Miss Mary McCarthy, prosecuting, said Reading was granted bail in May 2012 and failed to attend his next hearing in June of that year.

She said:'The trial was already listed for later that year and he failed to attend.

'He was convicted of a number of sexual offences against girls under 16 and was sentenced in early December 2012 to an extended term of 14 years with a custodial element of ten years.'

Lee Bremridge, defending, said: 'The defendant was in Plymouth awaiting trial in 2012 and had considerable problems for a number of years with drinking.

'The pressure became too much for him and he was under the impression he would not receive a fair trial and therefore did not attend.

'There were no delays in the trial as a result and it went ahead without him. He was arrested five and a half weeks ago when police were called after he threatened to commit suicide and he went with the police.

'He remains in Exeter and is hoping to do a course with respect to alcohol awareness and is applying his time well on a painting and decorating course.'

Reading was the sergeant and second in charge of an ATC in Devon, where he organised parties and sleepovers. He assaulted one young victim after telling her she may be promoted if she went on night exercises with him and another on the eve of a Remembrance Day parade.

He plied his victims with alcohol at the unofficial parties at the ATC hut where he hid his activities by putting bin bags over the windows as makeshift curtains.

He was found guilty of eight offences of sexual activity with a child or inciting a child to take part in sexual activity. The offences related to a 14-year-old and two 15-year-olds.