Six years for serial fraudster who ran off with 14-year-old

A serial fraudster who went on the run for five days with a 14-year-old girl has been jailed for six years.

John Bush, 35, disappeared with the girl in June. A nationwide police hunt was launched after the teenager went missing from her home near Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

She was eventually found with Bush by police near Euston Station in central London. At a previous hearing he admitted sexual activity with a child, child abduction and making off without paying for two hotel rooms.

He was jailed at Sheffield Crown Court by a judge who said he believed Bush was at least partly motivated by sex.

Sarah Wright, prosecuting, told the court how Bush, who was known to the victim’s family, took the girl after she was placed with foster parents. Her foster mother arrived at school on June 10 to find she had already left with Bush.

Judge Paul Watson jailed Bush, of Doncaster, for three-and-a-half years for sexual activity with a child and two years for child abduction, to run consecutively.

He jailed him for 12 months, to run concurrently, for not paying for the hotel room and jailed him for six months in relation to the breach of his suspended sentence.