By Carl Yapp BBC Wales News website

Griffiths described himself as a student and retired teacher, during the interview

Benjamin Griffiths, 63, spoke to the BBC Wales News website in his home town of Aberystwyth.

He was among three members of the public randomly asked for their opinions on a civil service strike.

Describing himself as a retired teacher, Griffiths talked of the "dismantling" of morals.

Griffiths made his comments last month, ahead of his trial and subsequent disappearance.

Unknown to the BBC, he was on bail at Chester Crown Court at the time. He went on the run last week ahead of being convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping a nine-year-old girl.

Late on the afternoon of 4 November, I was looking for reaction from members of the public at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, based at the university, to the civil service strike.

Not everyone always wants to give an opinion, so when I stumbled across the enthusiastic Griffiths I was pleasantly surprised.

He told me: "I'm not a political person, but I believe society is being dismantled.

"Our culture and the moral structure too, along with our traditions, inter-personal relationships and our families.

"So, I expect that more strikes will follow because people are becoming disillusioned."

I remembered him clearly because he was co-operative, unusually friendly and seemed very interested in my task.

He told me he was a retired teacher and he was studying at the university.

In a jacket, shirt and tie and sitting alone at a table, he was playing the guitar as I went into a caf� at the arts centre. He agreed when I asked if I could sit down.

Griffiths told me he lived in Aberystwyth and asked me where I lived.

Griffiths pictured with a beard but he was clean shaven in court

He didn't appear to me to have a Welsh accent, and I didn't pick him out as a native of Aberystwyth.

He then told me that he would be marching in the town against the civil service cutbacks.

The judge in the case subsequently described him as intelligent, and he certainly struck me as that. On reflection, I can see he would appear to be plausible to people.

In retrospect, it's rather chilling to know that someone who seemed a pillar of the community turned out to be as threatening and dangerous as he has been described.

Despite his impending court appearance, Griffiths was very happy to have his photograph taken to accompany the story I was writing.

But the man in the photograph released by police when he went on the run bore little resemblance to the person I had interviewed, so I did not recognise him when the story emerged.

He was clean-shaven in the picture, as he was when he escaped. The BBC has now passed the picture I took onto Dyfed-Powys Police.

Questions have been asked about why a defendant described by the judge as "intelligent and dangerous" was released on bail.

The Crown Prosecution Service has refused to comment, so far.