Judge slams decision to house paedophile near children's home
A judge has ordered a police force and council to pay £52,000 to a sex abuse victim after a convicted paedophile was housed near his children's home.
Martin Todd was sent to live near the Leicester home in 2009 in a decision the court said "beggared belief". He was jailed in 2011 for sexually assaulting and attempting to rape the boy, then aged 15. Leicestershire Police and Leicester City Council said they would appeal against the decision. At the hearing, Judge Alison Hampton said there was a "serious failure" to share information about Todd with staff at the home so they could take steps to safeguard the children. She also expressed concern that the children's services and housing departments did not question the location of the address, "a stone's throw away" from the council-run children's home. The judgement came in response to a compensation claim launched by the victim in April 2015, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said. Todd was sent to live at the address - which was proposed by the police - in 2009, after being jailed firstly in 1997, for two separate sex attacks on young boys, and again in 2006 for 10 breaches of a sexual offences prevention order, by befriending four families with children. No offences were committed. The boy was sexually abused by Todd between October and November 2009. At a trial at Leicester Crown Court in 2011, he was found guilty of attempted rape and two counts of sexual assault. He was given an indeterminate sentence for public protection, with a minimum of five years. At the compensation hearing last month, Judge Hampton ordered police to pay £41,600 and the authority £10,400 to the victim, now in his 20s, and refused both organisations permission to appeal. Their appeals will now go before the High Court. Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.