A CONVICTED killer is believed to be on the run in Spain after absconding days before he was due to stand trial on a number of serious charges.

Northumbria Police has launched a hunt for Neil Donnelly after he failed to appear at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday to answer charges of possession of a firearm and threats to kill.

Donnelly has already served ten years for the brutal manslaughter of a security guard after a robbery at the Co-operative Bank, Sunderland, in 1987.

The 37-year-old, from Southwick, Sunderland, is thought to have fled to southern Spain.

He is charged with burglary, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, and threatening to kill Paul Dunn and Tracey Harfield at a house in Penshaw, last December.

He has been on bail awaiting trial at Newcastle since March and faces a mandatory life sentence if found guilty of the charges.

Donnelly, along with crime partner Louis Longsaff, was convicted of killing security guard Kevin Tomlinson, 26, in the bungled 1987 robbery at the bank on Fawcett Street.

Judge Guy Whitburn yesterday issued a warrant for Donnelly's arrest at Newcastle Crown Court.

Northumbria Police said the force was aware only days before the trial that Donnelly may have fled the country.

"If it is correct that Donnelly has left the country, we will be liaising with the appropriate authorities in an attempt to have him returned to Britain in order that he can be placed before the Crown Court."