A HOLIDAY camp chef who tied up and raped two 15-year-old girls he met while working near Burnham has finally been jailed after going on the run.

Clayton Ball, 25, was tried in his absence in September and later arrested on the Isle of Wight following a national manhunt.

But on Monday (November 5) Ball was in the dock at Taunton Crown Court to hear a judge confirm his 12-year prison sentence.

During his trial a jury heard he was working in a holiday camp fish and chip shop when he met the teenage holidaymakers.

One girl, thinking she was his girlfriend, was raped in his caravan with her hands tied with a belt and while blindfolded with a bandana.

He also had sex with another girl, whom he had talked of marrying. They twice had intercourse with her consent in June 2005 but four months later he tied her with his belt, and raped her after trying to put her in a pair of pink-furred handcuffs.

Nicolas Gerasimidis, prosecuting, said both went to his caravan for kisses and cuddles but Ball went far beyond that and raped them using a combination of violence and bondage.

Ball was convicted on two counts of rape and was found not guilty on a third similar charge on the direction of the judge. He was also found guilty on two charges of sexual activity with a child and had admitted possession of five indecent images of children at an earlier court hearing.

Defending Ball, Alan Large submitted that the sentence could be reduced. He referred to a psychiatrist's report and his client was of previous good character.

"He was a rather sad lonely man working hard, but with not much of a social life," he said.

He was sentenced to six years jail on each rape, to run consecutively, with concurrent sentences of 18 months for the other offences In reviewing the sentences on Monday, His Honour David Smith QC, sitting as a deputy circuit judge, said it was a distressing and sad case which called for severe penalties.

He said: "The conclusion I come to is that the sentence on the last occasion is appropriate".