TWENTY-TWO convicted violent sex offenders were living within a mile of the Queen's Park area in Glasgow when Moira Jones was brutally murdered there.
Speaking to the Sunday Herald, Paul McBride QC, who defended Marek Harcar, the Slovakian found guilty of raping and murdering the 40-year-old sales executive last week, said the information came to light during the trial. Harcar, 33, is beginning a 25-year jail sentence after killing Jones just yards from her home on May 28 last year.
McBride said the sex offenders had convictions for serious crimes, including rape and murder.
The revelation that 22 sex offenders were concentrated in just one small area is likely to send shockwaves through a community still reeling from the aftermath of the murder, and will raise questions over the public's right to information about the whereabouts of registered sex offenders.
Experts also warned that some of the group were likely to have fallen off the police radar and called for tighter controls on the monitoring of sex offenders. Unless released on parole, convicted sex offenders face very little police monitoring and are only required to register a change of address.
Among the convicted sex offenders living in the Queen's Park area at the time of the killing was Jason Mulheron, who admitted carrying out a serious sex attack in the same vicinity two months before Jones was murdered.
It is understood that none of the 22 were housed in the notorious Park View Hotel, which was shut down by Glasgow City Council months before Jones's murder.
McBride said: "The figure is staggering. I have no reason to believe that they are not still living within the Queen's Park community.
"Normally, registered sex offenders are those who have committed serious indecent assaults, rape or murder, or anything with a serious sexual element.
"If a convicted sex offender is released on parole there are certain restrictions laid down but if they are simply released from prison, all they have to do is inform police of their address or a change of address.
"Police will only ever knock a door if there is an offence in the area."
Three housing associations are also preparing to launch a legal challenge to the Court of Session in an attempt to find out how many sex offenders live in their communities, amid claims that convicted paedophiles are being "dumped" on deprived areas.
Two Glasgow organisations, from Blochairn and Craigdale, and Dunbritton in Dumbarton are appealing against several refusals by Strathclyde Police and the Information Commission to provide details on the number of sex offenders.
The associations say they have been lobbying for the details since the 2004 murder of schoolboy Mark Cummings in Royston, Glasgow, by Stuart Leggate, who had previous convictions for sexually assaulting children and was on the sex offenders' register.
If the action is successful, Information Commissioner Kevin Dunion and Strathclyde Police could be required to make public details of the number of offenders living in communities.
Mairead Tagg, Scotland's only expert court witness on the abuse of women and children, called for more rehabilitation services and closer monitoring of offenders.
She said: "There are 22 we know about but how many have slipped through the net? I am happy for the police and other agencies to know the whereabouts so long as they are engaged with the perpetrator to carry out a proper assessment of the risk they pose to the public, but that is not done.
"We don't have the resources to reduce and manage the risk.
"We have a legal system that works on the basis of crime and punishment and not on rehabilitation and risk assessment.
"We release into the community these people who have committed the most heinous crimes, and then we fail to monitor them effectively and consequently many fall off the radar."
The most recent figures show there are 3000 registered sex offenders living in Scotland. Glasgow had 430 in March last year - the highest in Scotland.
Offenders are monitored in the community under the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements which involves the police service, local authorities, the NHS, Scottish Prison Service and other partners.
An Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland spokeswoman said: "The management of sex offenders in the community is a particularly sensitive and complex area of work.
"A number of measures can be put in place to manage offenders in the community and these are monitored by dedicated police officers and officials from partner organisations.
"Public safety is always the main priority in all cases. Whilst it remains the main priority, a balance is required between public safety and the right of the individual."
