OXFORDSHIRE Probation Service says it is powerless to stop a paedophile returning to a village where he terrorised children.

Villagers fear that child rapist Rhys Hughes intends to move next door to the family of one of his victims - a girl he assaulted when she was aged four.

The family who live in South Oxfordshire may now seek a court injunction to try to stop Hughes's return. To protect the identity of the family, we have not published the name of the village.

The case is being taken up by the county's probation service, which wants Government action to stop dangerous paedophiles returning to communities unsupervised.

Hughes, 64, was sentenced to ten years in 1992, after a number of sexual offences against children stretching over 30 years. He is to be released from prison in September and has made no secret of his plans to return to his home village.

Probation Service spokesman Mike Biddulph said: "The service desperately wants to protect the interests of the family but there is nothing we can do. This man seems to have escaped legal restrictions because of the timing of his sentence."

The 1991 Criminal Justice Act gives the probation service control over where sex offenders live when they are released. But Hughes was jailed just months before the the legislation came into force. The mother of Hughes's youngest victim said: "Taking out an injunction could cost us thousands of pounds and it may only be awarded for a few months.

"It is cruel and arrogant of him to want to come back and live here. If he felt any kind of remorse he just would not do it. It is frightening to think that he has been with child killers in prison, where they can feed on each other's perversions."

The mother said her family would consider leaving the village if nothing could be done. "I was born here and this is where we wanted to bring up our children. But we may have no alternative. We will see how our daughter reacts."

She had feared some relatives of past victims may still not know of his release.

The county's Chief Probation Officer Eithne Wallis said: "We are bringing to the government's attention the fact that we are concerned about potentially dangerous sex offenders coming out of prison into the community.

"If they were sentenced before 1991 it means they will come out without proper supervision. We are pressing the government to try to find a way of bridging this loophole."

She also called for "proper protection of specific victims and the wider community" as well as changes in the Mental Health Act to stop sex offenders falling between prison and special secure hospitals.

The Association of Chief Probation Officers is asking the government to act after news that six dangerous paedophiles, similar to the child killer Robert Oliver, are to be released from jail without supervision during the next two years.

A police spokesman said that police were unable to intervene in the South Oxfordshire case. "The only recourse the victim's mother has is through the civil courts.

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