A CONVICTED paedophile is living just 300 yards from a primary school while trying to forge links with a charity that works with children.

Robert Williams, 41, has been a tenant in Blackburn Council flats at St Albans Court since February. He has served four jail terms since 1976 for offences against children as young as five.

Neither council officials nor staff at nearby St Albans RC Primary School knew of his record and police only became aware he was there after he contacted social services two weeks ago.

Earlier this year he contacted a charity which helps youngsters with a rare skin disorder and asked for information about its work.

Williams, who lives in flats which overlook St Albans, was sentenced to seven years in prison in 1990 for serious sexual offences against young children. He was originally known as James Robert Hackleton and used the alias Knaggs before changing his name by deed poll.

He was released from jail in 1994 and went to live in Blackpool but moved to East Lancashire soon after.Shadow Home Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw said: "This emphasises the need for a paedophile register.

"People who are released from prison have to live somewhere but the police and the local authority should certainly be made aware of where they are living and, if they move, if they have been convicted of such serious offences."

Following his release from prison, Williams contacted the charity DEBRA, which helps people suffering from a skin disorder.

The Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa Research Association does a lot of its work with children.

A spokesman for the charity, which was formed in Rochdale in 1978, confirmed that he had first contacted them in August last year. He added: "He requested some information earlier this year and we sent him some information do to with fund-raising.

"Following information we received, he is not now part of our group and it is highly unlikely that he came into contact with any children."

Williams answered the door to his flat today wearing a DEBRA T-shirt. He said collection boxes for the charity in his flat were about to be returned and that he had not had any contact with children through it.

He said: "I can understand how people could be concerned about me living in this area without anyone knowing but I need to keep myself to myself in order to live a normal life.

"I don't trust the authorities because in the past they have been responsible for telling people who I am.

"I agree that there needs to be a system set up to help and monitor people like me when we move back into society but it needs to be a system we can trust. "I have a lovely girlfriend who is always with me when I go out and I don't have the urge to re-offend."

A spokesman for Blackburn Council said the authority was not aware of Williams' background when he took up the tenancy.

But he added: "He has now given up the tenancy and is about to move outside the borough, if he has not already done so.

"We have a statutory duty to house people and he was placed in a block of flats where we don't house families with children.

"If something like this does come to light we liaise with the authorities before taking the appropriate action."

The head teacher at St Albans RC John Thorpe said the case highlighted the need for a national paedophile register.

He said: "I would like to have known he was there and I am sure local parents and the tenants' association would as well.

"You have to give these people a home somewhere but it is important that the authorities know where they are.

"The flats are right next to our school and Daisyfield Primary School and the council have spent a lot of money on a childrens' play ground nearby."

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