A local press reporter and photographer confronted a convicted rapist after an appeal for missing sex offenders led them to a rural Swiss village.

Derby Telegraph crime correspondent Shaun Jepson and Nottingham Evening Post photographer Jemma Cox flew out to Switzerland in the hunt for 48-year-old Richard Guelbert.

Guelbert was jailed in 1999 for 12 years for raping a 15-year-old girl in Nottinghamshire but was released on licence in 2008 and made to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register.

By moving to Switzerland from Derby in 2008 he was in breach of the conditions of his licence when he failed to notify authorities of a change of address.

The move by the two Midlands dailies followed an appeal last month looking for help in locating five missing sex offenders including Guelbert.

The Telegraph had submitted a Freedom of Information request to Derbyshire Police for details of all their outstanding registered sex offenders.

Shaun searched Facebook to see if any of the group was listed on the social networking site and discovered that Guelbert had a profile page with Switzerland as his location.

After consulting a Swiss phone book on the internet, the reporter had Guelbert’s phone number and address in the village of Obermumpf, near Basle, and started planning a sting operation.

Today’s Derby Telegraph and Nottingham Evening Post front pages

Shaun told HTFP: “We checked with the police that they had no issue with us doing that as we didn’t want to jeopardise any operations.

“We flew out to Geneva on Friday and then travelled to Obermumpf to do a recce of the area. We were then outside his house from 7am on the Saturday morning but we had no indication that he was in there as his flat wasn’t on the ground floor.”

Shaun called colleagues back in the office and asked a reporter to ring Guelbert’s house to check he was in, which he was, so it then became a waiting game.

After seven hours of enduring below freezing temperatures, the wanted man appeared and was confronted by Shaun and Jemma.

Despite their two-minute exchange beginning pleasantly enough, Shaun said Guelbert soon changed his tone and was “curt” in his response to questions.

“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried at the time but it was exhilarating and it felt like we were representing his victim and just wanted answers for her,” the 27-year-old added.

“In the three and half years I’ve been here, it’s by far and away the most exciting story I’ve been able to work on.

“Fortunately we’ve got bosses who are willing to show a bit of faith in their reporters.”

The first five pages of today’s Derby Telegraph are dedicated to the story with a front page splash, first person piece with pictures and interview with Guelbert’s victim who is now aged 27.

Derbyshire Police are continuing to work with their Swiss counterparts to bring Guelbert back to the UK and Shaun plans to send his stories to the Swiss authorities to see if they will look at deporting him.

“It will flag up to the people in that area exactly who he is,” Shaun added.

Comments

sunny (16/03/2010 10:10:14)
That’s amazing. Well done Shaun. And well done to the paper for still letting you do that kind of thing. Investigations eh? Brilliant.

JP Worker (16/03/2010 10:32:12)
Love this quote: “Fortunately we’ve got bosses who are willing to show a bit of faith in their reporters.” Do-little managers thinking it’s only a free 20p Greggs token or a scrapbook filled with ‘wonderful’ submitted pic, take note – stories like the above sell papers.

Ajinexile (16/03/2010 10:53:24)
Hats off to the editors of both these titles for giving the green light to Shaun and Gemma to carry the investigation to rural Switzerland. It made me yodel!

Ladywell (16/03/2010 11:10:21)
Who sez newspaper journalism is dead?!

Dr Spin (17/03/2010 10:25:20)
Well done again for finding this fiend….oh wait there the authorities already knew where he was. Never mind a great Derbyshire story…wait there it all happened in notts. This story doesn’t hold a candle to some of jepo’s other great journalistic works. Where were the plaudits when he lived in a rubbish dump and who can forget the recent male waxing scoop. As shaun’s great mentor Paul bull once said news is better than sex. But I sm sorry to learn that this could be the last we see of shaun as he’s apparently joining the navy. Good luck shaun I know you love seamen