Dennis Ferguson has to go

Convicted paedophile, Dennis Ferguson, has made the news headlines in the last week, again for the wrong reasons. Mr Ferguson has been discovered to be living in a Housing Comission flat in the Lower North Shore suburb of Ryde and the local residents now fear for the safety of their children.

I share their concerns and will add another. Mr Ferguson was originally found guilty of comitting kidnap and indecent acts against three children in Queensland. Mr Ferguson comitted his crimes in Queensland, was sentenced to fourteen years in a Queensland gaol and was released on parole last year. He should be serving his parole in Queensland at the expense of the Queensland taxpayer, not be allowed to come interstate and waste the taxpayers' money here in New South Wales.

Additionally, just because Mr Ferguson is on parole from a Queensland gaol does not give the Queensland Parole Board the right to put children in New South Wales at risk by allowing Mr Ferguson to frequent areas here that are populated with large numbers of children. Mr Ferguson was found guilty of kidnap and sexual assault of minors. Mr Ferguson has to wear a satellite tracking beacon as part of his parole conditions but will that stop him re-offending? It is my belief that people who kidnap and rape children cannot be rehabilitated. They are lunatics and are beyond corrective help. Mr Ferguson claims he won't reoffend but after his release he was brought back before a court on similar charges only to have them dropped on the count of widespread media coverage of the incident allegedly bringing prejudice to any trial by jury.

I am not convinced that children in Ryde and surrounding suburbs will be safe whilst this monster is permitted to rent a Housing Commision flat. To add insult to injury, Mr Ferguson was provided with this flat ahead of homeless citizens of New South Wales and without community consultation due to his history as a criminal. Don't families have a right to now if the government is going to force a convicted paedophile upon them? I do think so.

Mr Ferguson should be sent packing immediately - either back to the Queensland gaol he was released from or into a Queensland mental hospital or to an isolated area where there are no schools or areas where large numbers of children congregate. Mr Ferguson's inability to be settled back into a normal life simply is not our problem.

Relevant link: http://wl.theaustralian.news.com.au/...00.html

Written at 08:34 on 20 September 2009 by Lord Watchdog.

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