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One of Tyneside’s most wanted men has had his face beamed on the back of a van in a bid to track him down.

Alleged rapist Yousef Babaye is wanted by Northumbria Police in connection with the rape of a woman under the age of 18 over a period of four years in Newcastle.

Also going by the nicknames Shaho Babaye and Shaho Kaled, Babaye is Asian and thought to be between 25 and 30-years-old and 5ft 10ins tall, with short, brown hair.

Officers believe he may have left the UK but cannot confirm it and he may still be in the country.

Babaye’s face was beamed onto a van to mark 10 years of Crimestoppers’ ‘Most Wanted’ online gallery.

His picture appeared with others wanted by UK police forces on a vehicle fitted with a large digital screen that launched in London on Tuesday , November 17, before travelling to towns and cities across the UK and finishing in Newcastle on Saturday.

The tour comes exactly 10 years after Crimestoppers’ Most Wanted online gallery was launched in the UK.

To date, the site has listed a total of 12,524 appeals – 3,589 of which have been arrested.

Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC, founder and chairman of Crimestoppers, said: “Most Wanted continues to be a success a decade after we launched it and we wanted to celebrate this milestone.

“A huge number of those who have been listed on the website have been arrested over the years and we hope this Most Wanted tour of the UK will increase that number.

“The digital screens have been hitting the streets, possibly going in to the cities and towns where these suspects are hiding.

“We urge the public to have a look at those screens and, if you recognise any of the faces, contact Crimestoppers anonymously.”

Crimestoppers’ Most Wanted was launched on November 17 2005 and was, at the time, the first national online source of wanted individuals in the UK.

The site initially provided photographs and descriptions of known suspects, before expanding to include an ‘unknowns’ section of CCTV images.

The aim was, and still is, to give members of the public the opportunity to give information about any of the suspects to Crimestoppers anonymously.

It continues to be a useful tool for all of the UK police forces and wider law enforcement agencies.

It has also become vital for several national and international fugitive campaigns – including Crimestoppers’ and the National Crime Agency’s Operation Captura, which seeks to find British fugitives hiding in Spain.

Mark Hallas, chief executive for Crimestoppers, said: “Most Wanted appeals to the nation’s ‘arm chair’ detectives – those who want to help fight crime from the safety of their own home and, above all else, anonymously.

“It was quite ground-breaking when it first launched as the first national online source of wanted individuals and it continues to be an important tool for UK law enforcement today.”

Over the duration of the campaign, the van will have visited Newcastle, London Slough, Southampton, Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham, Nottingham and Leeds.