A TRUCKER who is on the run with a 15-year-old girl is on bail for the alleged rape of a teenager at a North-East hotel.

Robert Williams, 49, sparked an international manhunt after disappearing with Laura Stainforth last week.

Police believe they have gone overseas after CCTV cameras filmed Laura on board a ferry to Calais yesterday.

Detectives also revealed yesterday that Mr Williams was arrested for allegedly raping a teenage girl at the White Horse Hotel, in Darlington, on December 6 last year.

It is understood that Mr Williams was visiting his grownup children, named in a national newspaper yesterday as Hayley and Andrew, who both live in Darlington.

He was released on bail pending further inquiries, but later disappeared.

His 16-year-old accuser cannot be named for legal reasons, but it is understood she is from West Sussex.

Within weeks, Mr Williams, who lives in Scotland, disappeared with 15-year-old Laura, from Cleethorpes, in North-East Lincolnshire.

The teenager was last seen by her parents when she left home to go to the shops at about 3.30pm last Wednesday.

She was reported missing by her family at 9.23pm that night.

The teenager and Mr Williams were filmed by CCTV cameras at Grimsby railway station on Wednesday evening.

Detectives believe they took a train to Doncaster, South Yorkshire, before travelling to London, and then to Dover.

Laura was then spotted by a member of the public in Dover the following day.

Yesterday, CCTV footage was discovered of her on board the Pride of Kent ferry, which was travelling from Dover to Calais last Thursday afternoon.

The investigation now involves police in County Durham and Humberside, as well as Interpol and agencies in France.

The girl at the centre of the rape allegations said yesterday that Mr Williams had told her he was 26 when he first contacted her via website Facebook and MSN Messenger.

She told a national newspaper that Mr Williams first visited her near her home on November 19 last year, and plied her with vodka before taking her to a hotel, where she claimed they had sex.

She contacted him again on December 5 after falling out with her family and she claims that Mr Williams picked her up and drove her to Darlington to introduce her to his children.

She alleges that he raped her that night.

Her father told the Daily Mail yesterday that he had complained to Darlington police when Mr Williams tried to contact his daughter again after he was released on bail.

He said the police told him they did not know where Mr Williams was.

The girl’s father was quoted in the newspaper as saying: “It sickens me to think that they could have locked him up.

“He has now gone off with this other girl and wrecked someone else’s life.”