Paedophile is refused place at village hostel

ONE OF Britain's most notorious paedophiles has been refused a place at a halfway house in a small village because he would not agree to the restrictions, it emerged yesterday.

Robert Oliver, 43, was convicted of manslaughter for his part in the killing of Jason Swift, 14, during a homosexual orgy in 1985. He served 10 years of a 15-year sentence.

Also jailed for his part in the killing was Sidney Cooke, whose release caused a riot at a police station in Bristol earlier this year.

Since his release last September, Oliver has been hounded from one town to another. In June, it was disclosed that he was being considered for a place at Wing Grange, a Leicestershire rehabilitation hostel for low- level offenders run by Langley House Trust. But yesterday the trust said it had rejected the Home Office's request for it to house Oliver. A statement said: "Langley House Trust has decided that Mr Oliver and other offenders with a similar profile, cannot be accommodated ... Mr Oliver has not agreed to the proposed restrictions. In practice his life would be more confined than it would be in prison and certainly greater than he is accustomed to at present."

Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, met Wing villagers in an attempt to allay their fears, but the trust said yesterday that the security measures envisaged for Oliver were already having an "adverse effect upon the rehabilitation process for other residents and the trust considers that the limited progress for the one should not be at the expense of the progress for the many".