Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Child-Killer's Release Angers Brits > LONDON (AP) -- Pedophiles may be detained indefinitely > in the future, a British Cabinet minister said Sunday, > responding to public fear and anger over the release of > a child-killer. > > Sidney Cooke, 70, was due to be released Monday after > serving nine years of a 16-year sentence for his part in > the gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old youth in 1988. > > Police said Cooke, who is unrepentant and has refused > therapy, agreed to wear an electronic tag and be > supervised by probation officers -- but only after they > threatened to publicize where he will live. > > Cooke is among 150 sex offenders due to be released over > the next few years who are legally entitled to live > without supervision because they were convicted before > 1992. > > Laws since then say released sex offenders must register > with the police and be supervised by parole officers. > > One of Cooke's three accomplices in the killing of Jason > Swift has been hounded by from six towns by furious > parents since he was freed from jail last year. > > Robert Oliver, 43, now has a 48-hour police guard and > lives at a privately run clinic, costing the government > around $535 a day. > > Protesters, including several mothers of children > murdered by pedophiles, gathered outside London's > Wandsworth Prison where Cooke served his sentence. > > However, authorities removed Cooke in a van with > blackened windows to a secret destination on Saturday > night, before his scheduled release. > > Home Secretary Jack Straw said serious sex offenders > should receive ``indeterminate sentences.'' > > ``There is a great deal of concern about serious sex > offenders who pose a threat to children,'' Straw said in > an interview with the Sunday Times of London. ``We are > urgently examining ways to ensure such people are > released only when they no longer pose a threat.'' > > Cooke, a former fairground worker, has been linked -- > but not charged -- with the murders of several other > children. > > Police and prison psychiatrists say Cooke hopes to get > work under a new name at a fairground and admits he may > seek out another child. -- Two rules in life: 1. Don't tell people everything you know. 2. Subscribe/Unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the body of the message enter: subscribe/unsubscribe law-issues
