A convicted rapist from Oxford who went on the run as appeared before court in Hong Kong today.

Joseph Tsang, of Littlemore, was arrested yesterday at about 1.30pm UK time by Hong Kong police after being on the run for more than a month.

Today he appeared at Eastern Magistrates' Court in the Asian city.

Tsang, 31, fled the country after being found guilty at Oxford Crown Court at the beginning of the year of assaulting a 14-year-old girl .

The amateur ice skater, of Sandy Lane, was then convicted in his absence of raping a 15-year-old girl at a hotel in Hampshire at the same court in August.

Despite being electronically tagged and surrendering his UK passport, it is believed Tsang had dual nationality and was able to slip through the police net.

Thames Valley Police secured an international arrest warrant and worked with Hong Kong police and Interpol to track him down.

"Hong Kong police will continue to take strong enforcement action against overseas fugitives fleeing to Hong Kong,” said a spokeswoman for the Hong Kong police.


A request has been made to both Hong Kong police and Interpol for Tsang, who is a dual national of Britain and Hong Kong, be extradited, but the process could take up to two years.

"Upon (receiving) a formal extradition request from the British police, Hong Kong Police last night arrested a 31-year-old man in connection with two cases of sexual offences in United Kingdom,” said the spokeswoman.

Tsang's lawyer said his client would challenge the extradition order.

The Oxford Brookes graduate, who worked as a computer technician, first stood trial at Oxford Crown Court in January when he was accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl at her house in 2012.

Tsang appeared in person for the trial, where he admitted he was sexually attracted to the girl and said she spent a night with him in his bed but insisted nothing inappropriate happened between them.

He told the court: “I didn’t see anything harmful to it. I didn’t predict two years later I would be in court.”

The jury found him guilty of two counts of causing or inciting a female under 16 years to engage in sexual activity, three counts of sexual activity with a child under 16 years and one count of making indecent images of children.

In the second case, the jury heard Tsang groomed another girl in 2011 who he met at an ice skating competition. The girl said she added Tsang as a friend on Facebook and they got to know each other, then in December that year Tsang drove her to a hotel where he raped her twice.

Tsang, who claimed to have previously worked for Oxford City Council, was found guilty in his absence of two counts of rape and two counts of sexual assault by penetration by a majority verdict.