In November 2006, a Government police agency made the disappearance of five dangerous paedophiles highly public with the launch of a controversial new website designed to flush them out of hiding.

Investigative reporter Mark Daly (The Secret Policeman, The Boys Who Killed Stephen Lawrence) goes on the hunt for Britain’s Most Wanted Paedophiles, a BBC One documentary to be broadcast Wednesday 27 June at 9pm.

All the men had served their time inside and were placed on the sex offenders register but have failed to co-operate with the authorities on their release.

Alexander Dalgleish, 35: convicted in 2002 of unlawful sex with a 13-year-old and indecent assault of a second 13-year-old girl. Went on the run in 2003.

Daly said: “When I eventually tracked down one of the men, Alexander Dalgleish, it was fascinating but disturbing to hear how he tried – but failed – to justify his actions. He’s now in prison. But not before time. We managed to get to him before the British police did. And in fact, it was 48 days after he was located in Ireland that he was eventually arrested.

“Irish police told UK cops where he was living in Ireland, but the Lancashire police didn’t get an extradition warrant for him and all he had to do was sign on once a week at an Irish police station. He was free to wander around Ireland as he pleased, despite being described by police as one of Britain’s most dangerous offenders.

“He wasn’t arrested till he came back from Britain of his own accord and was nicked while having a meal with his family. His victims were shocked when we told them this.”

Kamil Krawiec, 27: convicted in 2006 of sexual assault of a underage boy and voyeurism. Went on the run in 2006.

Paul Turner, 54: convicted in 2002 for downloading child pornography. Went on the run in 2002.

Daly said: “Turner was the most surprising one. We found that he had killed a man in France in 1995 and sentenced to 14 years. But he escaped three years later and somehow fled back to Britian.

“So that means that in 2002, he was convicted, imprisoned and released back into the community here in the UK while he was an escaped killer with years of his French sentence still to run.

“We found that it’s normal practice for foreign countries to alert Britain when one of their subjects escapes, so that means that the UK authorities would have had this information somewhere if procedures had been correctly followed.

Gordon Stewart, 29: convicted of indecent assault and shameless indecency in front of children. On the run since 2005.

Joshua Karney, 29: convicted of sexual assault on a 14-year-old boy. Went on the run in 2003.

Between them they’ve been missing for 12 years. Daly traces what has happened to these men, finds their victims and examines whether this initiative opens the floodgates to routine naming and shaming of all paedophiles.

Daly said: “In this film we went on the hunt for Britain’s five most wanted, most elusive paedophiles. They had all committed serious offences, had been released back into the community but were failing to comply with the sex offenders register. In the eyes of the authorities that made them highly dangerous.

“There were various sightings of the men all over the country, but so far police had failed to bring them in and as a last ditch attempt turned to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre website.

“Their pictures and names were put on the website and were viewed by 8 million people in the first 24 hours of the website going live. But there was very little other information about the men. So we decided to find out for ourselves.

“We followed up every lead and were able to find out who they were and what they’d done. We tracked down their victims and listened while girls told us how they had their childhoods taken away from them. It was very difficult to listen to but made us even more determined to find them.

“We also tried to look at the issues surrounding Sarah’s Law and how we monitor paedophiles. We spoke to Glasgow mum Margaret Ann Cummings whose little boy Mark was killed by known paedophile Stuart Leggate.

“We travelled to America to see how their system of Sarah’s law works – and saw first hand how the public can misuse this information with tragic consequences.”