‘Fake death’ street trader Scot went missing off California

BY CHARLIE GALL off Carmel, California. The 55-year-old had been due to stand trial on five charges of rape and alleged child sex offences.

He faces a total of 24 charges of rape, attempted rape, sexual assaults, lewd and libidinous conduct, breach of the peace, threatening behaviour and malicious damage. He is alleged to have abused a total of four women between January 1997 and May 2015 in Inverness, Inverness-shire and the Borders.

Two of his alleged victims were aged 11 when the alleged abuse against them started.

Avis jumped bail and fled to the US. After he failed to appear at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, judge Lord Tyre granted an order for the arrest of Avis.

The decision will now turn a missing person inquiry in the US into a criminal manhunt.

Police in California have been trying to trace Avis after he disappeared from Monastery Beach in Carmel on February 25.

Last week, they said they believed Avis staged a vanishing act to avoid the court case in Scotland.

Avis, who denies any wrongdoing, appeared at the High Court in Glasgow when his case called for an earlier hearing.

The Crown Office said: “We don’t comment on the existence or not of warrants. The case is live and no dates are set.”