Residents fury over rapist home

RESIDENTS in the southern Brisbane suburb of Salisbury are furious after word spread one of Queensland’s worst sex offenders Robert John Fardon (above) would be living in a house just a few hundred metres from a school and childcare centre.

As locals took to social media yesterday to identify the house they believed he was living in, Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said officers were monitoring his every move but refused to confirm his location.

He said officers had extra powers to monitor him but refused to say where he lived, other than it did not place the community at risk.

“Fardon is a person who attracts undue attention,” Mr Stewart said. “No one can ever consider that there shouldn’t be a time when he’s not monitored by police.”

Nearby childcare centres said authorities had not alerted them that Fardon was living in Salisbury.

It is understood the residence, while privately owned, has been used as a housing commission property.

There were reports last night Fardon had been moved from the house to an undisclosed location.

Questions remain over whether there was any government assistance involved, given the property’s close proximity to childcare centres and schools.

Kerri Anderson, who lives nearby, said she heard about the house on Monday.

“I’ve got two kids who walk down here every day,” she said. “It freaked me out, no way.”

Fardon raped a 12-year-old girl at gunpoint in 1978. He was released in 1988 but then committed a violent rape of a woman within months of getting out. He was jailed for 14 years in 1989 for rape.