Malaria Man Charged With Sex Assault

A nurse who sparked an international search because it was feared he had malaria has been charged with sexual assault.

Matthew Lloyd, 35, from Southampton, was undergoing a clinical trial to find a cure for the disease in Oxford when he failed to make an appointment last month.

Police and his family appealed for help to find him and he was traced to Holland on October 18. He did not contract the disease.

At the time Lloyd disappeared, he had been arrested and questioned in relation to an alleged attack against a 20-year-old woman and released on police bail, but he was free to leave the country.

Hampshire police said that Lloyd was to answer his police bail on December 13 but a spokesman said he was called in early and charged with sexual assault and common assault on November 16, but the media were not told until today.

The police spokesman said the force's media services had not been told of the charges by officers in the case.

The alleged attack on took place on August 21 in Southampton as the woman walked home from work.

Lloyd was released on bail to reappear before Southampton Magistrates' Court on January 5 next year.