A DANGEROUS paedophile was back in jail today after he had gone on the run.

Michael Andrew Wilson, 44, who has five convictions for sex offences against boys since 1983, was released from his latest prison sentence last Friday -- only to go missing from his Blackburn home on Monday.

But he was caught yesterday afternoon in Kirkham after being spotted following a media appeal.

A police spokesman said: "As he was on licence at the time of his disappearance, he will be returned to prison."

Today, a probation boss admitted the hunt for Wilson was "closing the stable door after the horse had bolted".

Colin Dearden, deputy chief probation officer for Lancashire, said there had been no way to stop Wilson being released from prison as he had served his time.

Today MPs said that they were very worried that such a "serial sex offender" had been allowed back into the community and urged the authorities to "throw the book at him."

Wilson, previously described by a judge as of "ultra high risk to children", "psycho- pathically disordered" and a "systematic paedophile", was released from prison on licence after serving half of a four-and-a-half year sentence, the amount when eligible for release.

Being on licence meant he had to abide by a number of conditions, such as an 11pm curfew, or face being sent back to jail to finish the rest of his sentence.

Because of his history, Wilson is subjected to high-level police and probation service monitoring whenever he is out of prison in a bid to protect the public.

Mr Dearden said as part of this Wilson was escorted from prison to his Blackburn address by police and Probation Service on Friday and was monitored over the weekend, before he went missing.

He added: "On the basis of that I asked the Home Office to revoke his prison licence which has now been done.

"I can understand that people may think he should not be in the community but he has served his time and had to be released.

I understand that is bolting the stable door after the horse has gone but if we had not monitored him we would not know he had gone.

"

Wilson has been jailed twice in the past seven years for breaking the terms of a sex offender order.

He is not allowed to approach anyone aged under 18 without written police authority.

In 1999 he left his Accrington bail hostel unsupervised, caught a train to Preston and approached a boy.

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope said: "This is obviously very worrying.

"They obviously need to think what they do with serial sex offenders like this but at the moment they need to throw the book at him."

Pendle MP Gordon Prentice said: "It goes without saying he must be put back behind bars"