August 21, 2005

Pedophile transfer defended

AUSTRALIA
Queensland Sunday Mail

21aug05
A NOTORIOUS pedophile who moved from Western Australia to Victoria under a parole transfer scheme will be carefully monitored, Corrections Commissioner Kelvin Anderson said today.

Charles Alan Smith, now in his 70s, was released from a Perth jail in February after serving less than eight years of a 15-year sentence. He was convicted of 39 sexual offences against boys aged 10 to 17 between 1964 and 1978.

The move, which has raised the ire of Victoria's opposition, comes just a week after revelations another convicted pedophile from WA, Otto Darcy-Searle, was paroled to live with relatives in the northern NSW town of Banora Point, after serving five years of an 11 year term.

The case sparked a major row between the New South Wales and WA governments, and in the outcry that followed, Darcy-Searle volunteered to return to WA where he is now back in jail while the parole board is reviewing his future.

The Smith and Darcy-Searle cases followed the release of convicted serial child rapist Brian Keith Jones, known as Mr Baldy.

Jones, 58, was electronically tagged and subjected to strict parole conditions when he was released last month, including a curfew and a ban on contact with children. On August 8, Jones agreed to a court-imposed 15-year extended supervision order.

Smith, a former Salvation Army major who ran a house for homeless boys, had earlier pleaded guilty to a further 76 charges relating to offences committed between 1958 and 1977.

Commissioner Anderson has confirmed Smith's parole was transferred to Victoria from WA earlier this year. Reports suggest he may have moved in with his son and daughter-in-law.

Posted by kshaw at August 21, 2005 08:25 PM