Paedophile killer Frank Parker with a child

The Chief Inspector of Probation's report reveals child killer Frank Parker was freed without proper testing for psychopathic tendencies.

Parker who murdered a neighbour's 10-year-old daughter in 1966 was being supervised on licence.

The report said he should have been recalled to jail much earlier.

"Serious misjudgement"

It was commissioned after a BBC Panorama documentary in November 2006 exposed failures in the bail hostel system.

Parker was secretly filmed befriending children and speaking of taking a photo of a semi-naked teenage girl whom he had invited to his room at the Brigstocke Road hostel.

The report found Parker had been issued with a warning letter and had privileges withdrawn as a consequence but no further action was taken.

"The extremity of this behaviour was such as to justify immediate recall in this case, and it was a serious misjudgement not to decide that," said Chief Inspector Andrew Bridges.

Poor assessment

He criticised the fact that an assessment report written by a probation officer in 2004, a year before the end of Parker's jail sentence for the murder of a neighbour's 10-year-old daughter, did not mention the crime's sexual motive.

It said: "Worryingly, in the description of his offending she cited his motivation to offend as having been his decision to burgle the house and missed out the sexual element of the offence.

"There was no mention made of the use of weapons, nor of his previous conviction for arson. She assessed his risk of harm as medium.

"His release had put the public at avoidable risk and while he was being supervised on licence, although he was in fact recalled, he should have been recalled much earlier.

"The assessment and management of this case by all involved was poor," said the Chief Inspector.