Sex offender pleads for a safe home

Sex offender pleads for

a safe home

A child-sex offender and his wife were yesterday at the centre of a High Court battle for the right to be housed in a "safe" area after being hounded from their home.

Jimmy Larwood, 41, was driven out of his council flat overlooking a children's playground and close to a school in North Woolwich, east London, by neighbours after being identified in a Sunday newspaper.

Ms Judith Maxwell, counsel for his wife Maureen, accused Newham borough housing officials of acting unreasonably by refusing to re-settle the couple in an area where they would not be victimised.

The couple, now homeless, were forced out of the flat soon after Larwood's release from prison where he had served four years of a six-year sentence for sexually abusing boys.