A paedophile was tracked down and caught by police after his photo appeared in his local paper.

Darren Fletcher posed with his girlfriend and police officers for a ‘thank you’ story in Bournemouth’s Daily Echo after they helped her give birth in the back of their car last summer.

But detectives from Lancashire Police spotted the photo on the internet, enabling them to locate and catch their man.

The couple were heading to Royal Bournemouth Hospital when they realised they wouldn’t make it, so went to Christchurch Police Station where officers and staff delivered the baby.

The Daily Echo reports that 41-year-old Fletcher admitted 12 separate sex offences at Preston Crown Court; seven sexual assaults, four charges of sexual activity with a child and one of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Some of the offences, which date back to March 2005, occurred in Preston and involved four girls. He was sentenced to three years and 84 days.