A CONVICTED paedophile who fled his native Mallorca to hide out in Liverpool was a contestant on the British musical reality show, The X-Factor, while he was wanted by Spanish police.
Manuel Pons Sánchez, who is now 46, was sentenced in absentia to 23 years in jail for the horrific repeat attacks on his own daughter, Natalia.
He is said to have tied her to her bed, bitten her and raped her regularly from 1999, when she was six, until 2004, when she was 10.
It was not until 2007 when the girl's mother found out and reported her husband, who by that time had left the country and whose whereabouts was unknown.
Whilst an international arrest warrant was hanging over him, he lived a 'normal life' in Liverpool for 10 years, working as a hospital porter in Prescot, near Manchester.
And two years after he went on the run, Pons Sánchez performed the U2 number With or without you in front of Cheryl Crowe, Simon Cowell and millions of prime-time British TV viewers on The X-Factor.
Cowell asked him, before he performed, what had brought him to the UK and Pons Sánchez answered that he was a waiter, joking about how he was 'nothing like Manuel from Fawlty Towers'.
“In the future, I'd like to be more famous than Manuel from Fawlty Towers,” he said during the pre-performance backstage introductions of each artist.
Pons Sánchez has finally got his wish, although not in the way he had hoped.
He even went on to take part on other cult television talent shows, such as the spin-off of the original, The Xtra Factor.
Despite brazenly singing in front of, potentially, 10% of the UK population, he still went undiscovered until last summer, when he tried to renew his passport.
He was identified, arrested and swiftly deported to the Balearic Islands, where he sentenced and is now in prison where he will stay until he is nearly 70.
Although his capture was eight months ago, the fact that he starred on The X-Factor has only been revealed this week via reports in the left-wing British tabloid, The Mirror.
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