NORWICH – On Monday, a man charged with failure to register as a sex offender was released just before his jail term was to begin, after he made a personal appeal to the court about reforming his life and spending time with his girlfriend, who he said had cancer.

However after being released the man never reported back, prompting police to search for him. According to police documents, the man was arrested on Tuesday after hiding from law enforcement and failing to turn himself in to serve his sentence.

John L. Sullivan, 45, of Norwich pleaded guilty to failure to register as a sex offender, a class D felony. He was sentenced to serve six months in jail after being told he’d have to serve nine months due to a failed drug test.

After speaking on his own behalf, Sullivan was told he would be sentenced to serve six months in jail as long as he reappeared at noon on the following day to serve his sentence.

Law enforcement records show he was rearrested Tuesday night on a bench warrant for failure to appear.

According to Chenango County District Attorney Michael Ferrarese, Sullivan has 11 prior convictions, not including the new failure to appear charge.

“When you fail to follow the court’s orders there are consequences,” said Ferrarese. “As far as what those consequences are, that’s completely within the discretion of the judge.”