This is a breaking news story and is being constantly updated by our reporters as the breaking news story develops
A British athletics coach said to have been “missing” by media reports has been jailed for 10 months in Morocco for sexually assaulting a child, it has emerged.
Former gold medalist Leon Baptiste, 41, went off the grid without explanation nearly four months ago after reportedly travelling to Morocco with pals. He was coaching a clutch of top British track athletes in the run-up to this summer’s Commonwealth Games.
He had sent a message to the athletes he was training in May, explaining that he would be absent from training “for a while”. But they were were given no further details and neither the sprinters nor UK Athletics knew why he was out of contact.
Over the weekend, he was reported as “missing” by the media and outlets began claiming he had disappeared in Morocco.
On Tuesday, a short email sent to his runners said that Baptiste – a 200m gold medallist at the 2010 Commonwealth Games – had resigned, citing unspecified “ill health.” But it has since emerged he was serving a jail term in Morocco.
A source at the Moroccan Ministry of Justice told the BBC that Baptiste was arrested in Marrakech in May. He was then convicted and is now serving a custodial sentence in Al-Oudaya prison, it reported.
Baptiste was originally sentenced to 10 months in prison, later reduced to eight months on appeal.
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