The people are now serving a sentence, not the paedophile

THE decisions of the Parole Board always depress me – I don’t think that they work in the public interest, but only those who are guilty.

They make decisions without consulting the victims nor the local community.

The recent decision to release convicted paedophile Nigel Leat suggests to me that paedophiles have more rights than their victims seem to.

This decision should be the subject of a judicial review, as was the case of the serial rapist John Warboys. The High Court reversed the Parole Board’s decision for an early release last year. He still remains in jail.

I consider that the Parole Board needs to be replaced with something more democratic where the views of victims and the local community are paramount, which is not the case in Leat’s parole decision.

Why should the local community and the children of Weston-superMare live in fear because this man is now in their midst?

These are the people that are serving a sentence, not Leat.

Too much consideration is given to the guilty in this country and not enough consideration is ever given to the victims.

I feel very sorry for the youngsters and their parents who were originally distressed by Leat’s action, and are now having to relive this on his release.

If the Parole Board wishes to release paedophiles back into the community it should not be in the community where the offences were committed, but in areas where they can harm no one.

In Leat’s case the West Falkland Islands sounds a good place to release him, on a one-way ticket.

The alternative is to award full life sentences to convicted paedophiles.

Dr John Black