<div class="headline" id="ds-headline"><h1>Secret life of 'most wanted' paedophile revealed</h1></div> <div class="viewarticlepanel"><div class="multiimageon" id="MainMultiImage"><div id="MainImageDiv"></div><div id="ImageCaption">In custody: Joshua Karney</div><div class="offinline" id="ThumbDiv"><div class="thumb"></div><div class="thumb">/</div><div class="thumb">/</div><div class="thumb2">/</div></div> <div class="offinline" id="Navigation"><div class="off" id="PreviousBlock1">« Previous </div><div class="off" id="PreviousBlock1Inactive">« Previous</div><div class="off" id="NextBlock1">Next » </div><div class="off" id="NextBlock1Inactive">Next »</div></div> <div class="off noprint" id="divGalleryLink">View Gallery</div></div></div><div class="byline" id="ds-byline">By Gail Robinson </div><div class="ds-bylinetext" id="ds-bylinetext">EXCLUSIVE</div><div class="ds-firstpara" id="ds-firstpara">A SHOCKED South Yorkshire couple told today how they befriended one of the country's most wanted paedophiles as he lived a secret life under a fake name near the town for 18 months. </div><div class="va-bodytext" id="va-bodytext">Joshua Karney, who was today preparing to go the back to jail after more than two years on the run, adopted the name Aiden Darcy and lived with an unsuspecting gay lover in Wakefield. His new pals in Barnsley only discovered his sickening past as a wanted child molester when they read in The Star how South Yorkshire police had arrested Karney, aged 30, and then released him because they didn't realise who he was. The pervert, who was arrested at Barnsley's Brookland Hotel in November for being drunk and disorderly, gave South Yorkshire police false details and fined and released. It was only later, when his fingerprints were examined, that it became clear he was one of Britain's most wanted paedophiles who had gone missing from Lancashire in 2005. Karney, who had been convicted of indecent assault, was finally located in Hove, Sussex, at around 7.30pm yesterday where he was arrested and detained. Today, as he was due to be transferred to a prison in the north of England, a Barnsley couple who befriended him told of their shock at discovering the real identity of the "happy-go-lucky utterly charming" man. One of them, who asked not to be named, told of her "total shock and horror" when she recognised Karney's photograph in The Star. She said: "I felt sick to my stomach, I just couldn't believe it. This was a man I had thought of as a friend, a nice happy-go-lucky utterly charming bloke. "He was living with a friend of ours just a few miles from Barnsley as a couple and then I read in The Star that he is a paedophile and on the run from the police. "No way did we ever ever suspect who he was. Then in November he stole money from our friend and disappeared. We realise now that he was arrested at Brookland Hotel for being drunk and disorderly two days after he walked out on our friend after stealing almost £2,000. "Looking back now we realise he just used that friend to keep himself in hiding and under the radar. "He took free accommodation, clothes and money from someone who was in love with him. He was taken out and wined and dined and all the time he was stealing, lying and living a lie. "He was sometimes mysterious about his past. He had a Dublin accent and said he used to work with horses. "Once he confided in me that he didn't want a proper job. He said he had shopped his brother and father to the authorities in Ireland for something bad they had done and, because of that, people were looking for him to hurt him so he wanted to keep his head down. "He liked quiet country pubs, but we did all go to Chicago Rock in Barnsley and I even took him to Kiveton Club to meet my parents and my sister and everyone said what a smashing lovely bloke he was. "Everyone liked him, he was such a charmer, but now we know what a monster he really is." </div>
