Fugitive French rapist at large despite electronic tag

SPANISH police officers traced a rapist who fled France by tracking his electronic tag to Madrid.

But Jean Luc Moindrot remain at large despite the device supposedly being able to pinpoint his location precisely.

The 48-year-old Frenchman was sentenced to nine years in prison in 1991 for sexual assault.

In 2001 he was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for raping three different women. However, he was released in December 2013 after his sentence was reduced.

A French judge had sentenced him to wearing an electronic bracelet. The bracelet was fitted with a geolocation device which gives out a constant signal allowing law enforcement to know where he is at all times. But the signal was lost on June 12.

The French police suspected he had left the country, but did not know his exact whereabouts.

It seems two Spanish students saw him in Madrid prowling university bathrooms and alerted the police after identifying him.

Spanish police officers were able to track him the following day. The signal from the tracking device he wears indicates he had been at the Atenas Park in Madrid. Spanish police think he may still be in the country.

He drives a grey Opel Vectra, licence plate number CZ-257-V.

Geolocation is a groundbreaking technology which provides the exact location of a device in real time. It is based on geographical coordinates and measurements.

It works thanks to a built-in GPS found in the tracking device that basically propagates its latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates. These are then identified on a map to give an address that may include country, city, building name and oftentimes even the street address.

Most parolees are required by law to wear a tracking device that records their movements 24 hours a day. Police officers can access their tracking information from a computer or a laptop and can even know how fast the parolee is driving.

Furthermore, the unit is designed to broadcast an alert if someone tampers with it or if the parolee tries to take it off.