Clarke: Why does Lotto rapist get protection?

The Home Secretary said he ordered the review to determine if taxpayers' money was being spent properly in concealing the identity of Iorworth Hoare, who won the money while serving a life sentence for attempted rape.

The Sun newspaper reported yesterday that Hoare, 52, was living in Sunderland and that a large team of probation officers, police, and local authority workers had helped him when he was released from prison in March. Mr Clarke, said: "I have asked my department to look at the details of this particular case and some of the broader issues that it raises."

Hoare won £7m on a Lotto Extra ticket in August 2004 while on day release. He has a catalogue of crimes that date back to the Seventies and include rape, attempted rapes and indecent assaults. He was jailed for life in 1989 but freed on parole.