Police 'age' photos in bid to snare Britain's most wanted paedophiles

Using high-tech methods usually deployed to find missing people, images of the two offenders have been digitally altered to make them appear years older.

The aim is to leave Stephen Clare and Peter Weatherley with no hiding place - and bring them to justice after they went on the run.

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Police activated the hardline tactics to mark the first anniversary of a website aimed at tracing the UK's most wanted paedophiles.

During its first 12 months, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) has helped track down nine out of 13 offenders posted on the website in locations including the Britain, France and Mexico.

Officers called on charity Missing People to move their operation to the next level, altering the faces of the paedophiles to reflect the effects of growing older.

The technique is often used to boost public interest in the cases of missing people such as Essex teenager Dinah McNicol who vanished in 1991.

Both Clare and Weatherley are wanted by police after failing to comply with notification requirements under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

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Clare is a 35-year-old photographer who is around 5ft10in, of slim build, with straight brown hair and blue eyes.

He is white, has a Midlands accent and a scar on his left shin.

Police say he as a Teaching English as a Foreign Language qualification, is known to have had a Japanese girlfriend in 2000 and could be abroad.

He was last known to have lived in the Newcastle upon Tyne area but previously had connections with the Bromsgrove area of West Midlands and Brighton, Sussex.

Peter Weatherley, is aged 35 to 40, who also uses the surnames Jackson, Kennelley and Hudson.

He is around 5ft8in, of medium built, has light brown hair, blue eyes and a Northern accent with a scar on his left arm where a tattoo has been removed and a tattoo of a swallow on his upper left arm.

Wetherley has connections with South Yorkshire, the North East and Manchester, could also be abroad, possibly in Spain.

More than seven million people visited the Ceop website on the first day of its launch and it has since been viewed by 72 million people worldwide.

Jim Gamble, who heads Ceop, said the high-profile site acts as a deterrent to pedophiles who may be tempted to skip their registration requirements.

He said: "Thanks to their efforts and that partnership, nine offenders now know the true power of this new approach, nine offenders now know that they cannot escape the consequences of their crime."

Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said: "I am committed to protecting children against sexual predators and I am pleased that so much has been achieved to this end in the past year."

Natalie Cronin, of the NSPCC, said: "In its first year this website has proved to be an invaluable resource in helping to track down and catch child sex offenders who have flouted the sex offender register and disappeared off the radar.

"Child sex offenders who go underground pose a very real risk to children. We urge the public: if you know where they are, tell the police. They must be found to stop them striking again."