Sex ofenders?

[CCTAU 3,346]

But to where?

This is actually kinda funny. Two librul nations fighting over who gets to keep him.

Govt slammed for deporting sex offender

March 20, 2008 - 7:38PM

Child protection advocates say a decision to deport a paedophile convicted in Australia to Britain is immoral and dangerous.

British police were to greet a flight Thursday carrying a serial paedophile deported from Australia after serving a jail term for sex offences against boys.

Raymond Horne, 61, was being sent back to Britain after moving to Queensland in 1952 at the age of five.

Since 1965 Horne has spent over 14 years in jail in Australia on sexual abuse, assault and other charges.

Horne's latest stint behind bars was for 14 sex offences committed when he lured two homeless boys to his apartment while volunteering for a charity, The Times newspaper reported.

Australia's Department of Immigration recently declared Horne an unlawful person to be deported back to England.

He was released from Brisbane's Wolston Correctional Centre on Wednesday, and was to be met by British police when his plane landed in London on Thursday.

Queensland Corrective Services Minister Judy Spence said Australia was "well rid" of Horne.

If he had not been deported, Ms Spence said the state would have applied to keep him in prison indefinitely under special laws covering dangerous sexual offenders.

But it would cost taxpayers nearly $57,000 a year to keep him Horne jail, or more than $50,000 a year to keep him under supervision in the community, Ms Spence said.

"Queensland is a safer place without this convicted paedophile," Ms Spence said.

"I'm told UK authorities know he's coming ... my advice to them is to keep him under close supervision."

But critics slammed the government for simply moving the problem elsewhere.

Child welfare campaigner Hetty Johnston, of advocacy group Bravehearts, said cost should not be the determining factor in protecting children from abuse.

"Some poor child is going to pay for the decision to release that man," Ms Johnston said.

"(Paedophiles) are offenders until the day they take their last breath, and this guy is one of them.

"I feel sorry for England."

Queensland opposition justice spokesman Mark McArdle said the government had "no backbone" when dealing with convicted paedophiles.

"I question the morality of sending a sick, depraved individual back to the UK," he said.

Mr McArdle called for the dangerous offenders laws to be strengthened.

"(The government) weren't confident they could keep him in this state so they ditched him overseas," he said.

"I have no doubt that this man is going to reoffend in the UK.

"They have got no backbone."

British authorities were also outraged.

Child protection official Paul Roffey told London's Daily Mail newspaper Horne was a greater danger in England, where he had no social networks.

"Let's make it English children instead of Australian children, that seems to be (the) attitude," he said.

Horne will be obliged to sign a sex offenders' register in Britain, and would face a maximum punishment of five years' imprisonment for a breach.

Spokeswoman for the Phoenix Survivors child abuse support group in Britain Shy Keenan called for an international sex offenders register.

She said such a move would mean a recognised risk to children in one country could be immediately identified and managed anywhere in the world.

"It is an irony that Australia is now exporting dangerous criminals back to the UK, but this offender is British and they have every right to send this monster back," she told The Sun newspaper.

"The problem for us here in the UK is that Australian law and UK law don't work together as one - to manage the kind of risk he poses - which is exactly why we have for years been calling for an international sex offenders register."

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