IF EVER there was a prime example of the need for a comprehensive register of paedophiles then, surely, it comes with the shocking revelation today of a vile sex offender being housed in a council flat overlooking an East Lancashire primary school.

Worse than that, police have established that while free in the community this man - with a string of convictions for sex crimes against children of both sexes - made contacts with a charity that works with children.

Yet, this charity did not know of his past.

Nor did Blackburn Council, which housed him in such an alarming position.

And, incredibly, though he had been living in Blackburn since February, it was only last week that the police were made aware of his presence and alerted all patrols.

And it was only today that he was located by them - wearing a T-shirt promoting a children's charity.

Frightening though it is that a man of such potential menace is lawfully at liberty, equally horrifying are the gaps in the system that, as we have seen, allow the authorities, parents and the community to remain unaware for so long that he was in their midst.

This is not good enough.

For while it may be true that, in the wake of dreadful instances of paedophile crime, the Home Office is now compiling a register of these offenders to close those gaps, this case graphically underlines how urgently it is needed - and how it may not be sufficient protection.

For though the register, when operative, may warn potential employers and others in authority with access to it, there is no certainty that families living in the neighbourhood into which a paedophile has moved will be told.

But, surely, they should be.

Legislation to that effect is afoot in the USA.

And though its consequence may be that sex offenders become unwelcome and even hounded pariahs wherever they go - and many would say they deserve it - the benefit of parents and children being put on their guard surely outweighs the offenders' right to privacy and freedom to come and go like anyone else.

For this reason alone we make no apology for naming the man and the block of flats in which he lives. The public deserves nothing less.

We need not just a register of offenders, but firmer measures to ensure they are never off the leash - as, shockingly, this man was and may yet be again?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.