Payout for abuse victim after paedophile housed nearby

♦ A police force has been ordered to pay more than £41,000 to a sex-abuse victim after a convicted paedophile was housed near a children’s home.

Judge Alison Hampton said the decision in 2009 to move Martin Todd to near the council-run facility “beggared belief ” following his release from prison.

Todd was jailed in 2011 after he sexually assaulted and attempted to rape a boy, then aged 15, who lived in the home. Leicestershire Police and Leicester city council were ordered to pay the victim, now in his 20s, compensation at a court hearing last month.

The police were told to award £41,600 and the council must pay £10,400.

Todd was jailed for three years in 1997 for two sex attacks on young boys.

He was behind bars again in 2006 for 10 breaches of a sexual offences prevention order. He was released in March 2009.

Todd abused his 15-yearold victim between October and November 2009.