System ‘Failed With Paedophile’

A girl who was raped by a man who was on the sex offenders’ register was “failed” by procedures designed to supervise him, an inquiry has found. BBC News has seen a report prepared by the Brighton and Hove Safeguarding Children Board into Kevin Hazelwood.

The 40-year-old, from Brighton in East Sussex, was jailed indefinitely in April after admitting the rapes. He carried out the attacks over a three-year period. They began in 2002 when the girl was just five.

Hazelwood was convicted that year of accessing child pornography on the internet. He was placed under police and probation supervision but was still able to befriend the girl’s mother and win her trust.

The board’s inquiry identified a “gap” in the system between monitoring a sex offender’s behaviour and looking after the welfare of individual children within their families.

Chairman David Hawker said steps had since been taken “concerning the protection of children within the wider community”.

“The report highlights that there can be no guarantee of absolute safety from devious, manipulative people who are hell-bent on getting round child protection systems,” he added.

Mr Hawker also said that “professionals involved in the case acted in accordance with the relevant procedures”, but that some aspects of those procedures needed improving.

Hazelwood was told he must serve a minimum jail term of five years and seven months. He admitted six rapes, two attempted rapes, three sexual assaults and two indecent assaults against the same girl.