AFTER three days of peaceful street protests last week and guarded by up to six police officers, sex offender Dylan Logan was moved from a house in Stewarton and is once more in hiding.

In June, at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, 20-year-old Logan had admitted to downloading images of the sexual abuse of young children between March 2014 and December 2017.

He had previously been convicted in 2016 of eight cases of sexual assault, one of those on a child who was six at the time. His existing supervision order was extended by three years and he was freed, and rehoused in Sim Street, Stewarton, which sparked the protests.

The mother of the six-year-old Logan abused (who we are calling Carol to protect identities) accused the authorities of failing to safeguard the community and the legal system for failing her and the other parents and children Logan abused.

“It started [the abuse] in 2010 and went on for four or five years,” she told the Sunday Herald of the attacks on her son “James”.

At the time she and her children were living in the same Kilmarnock housing estate as Logan and his family. “I trusted Dylan because he was a quiet boy living nearby, my son’s friend, the son of a policeman, but he was a paedophile.”

She did not know that James was being systematically abused, along with other boys, until Logan was arrested for the first time in 2015.

“James started to cry and I thought it was just because his friend had been arrested. I had a long talk with him and it all came out,” Carol said.

“The reason he and the other boys had kept quiet about it was because Dylan threatened that if they said anything about it he’d get his dad to come and take them away and lock them up.”

Logan’s original supervision order also had various restrictions attached, including not visiting and downloading from internet sites. “I searched for his name on Google,” Carol said, “and I found him on OurteenNetwork [a dating and social site] and in February this year I reported him to the police.”

Logan pleaded guilty to downloading the extensive child pornography. “The fact is the court have let him go free again,” Carol continued. “He broke the conditions of the order and I expected him to go to jail.

“But he walked out to his family and was immediately given a mobile phone and rehoused by East Ayrshire Council.”

Neither the police nor any of the agencies involved is required to tell neighbours that the new tenant is a convicted sex offender. “Why should he get so much protection when we, the families and the children he abused, have had nothing, no counselling, no help?” Carol asked.

“It was said in court that Dylan had ‘issues’. Well these issues have impacted on every child and every family.

“We’re all affected. James has started punching holes in walls, it’s all been brought back. Me, personally?” she said, choking back tears. “I feel guilty. It was my job as a mother to protect my son and I failed him.”

Logan’s rehousing in Stewarton was close toLainshaw Primary School and the family home, where he abused the children, and was also near a primary school.

“The police say that he’s no longer in East Ayrshire,” Carol added, “but his dad’s been giving him driving lessons so the area where he can go will be wider. And he’ll do it again.”

In a statement, East Ayrshire police commander Chief Inspector John Cairns said that Logan had not been in Stewarton for several days. “I know where Mr Logan is at this time and where he has been in recent days,” he said.

Protests against three sex offenders housed in two locations in Dreghorn have also been taking place. More than 50 residents turned out at protests at two addresses in the town where the three are being housed after their details were posted online on a website called ukdatabase which claimes to hold details and profiles of more than 67,000 convicted UK and Irish child abusers.

A North Ayrshire Council spokesman said: “All individuals are regularly risk assessed and the location of any potential home is also subject to a risk assessment process.

“A great deal of work goes into finding accommodation so we can support their managed reintegration into their community.

“The agencies involved in Mappa [the multi-agency monitors] do not provide comment on individual cases.”

Almost 4000 sex offenders monitored

ACCORDING to the latest figures there are almost 4000 sex offenders living in the community, all of most of whom are monitored by multi-agency protection arrangements, or Mappa, which is designed to assess the risk and take action to keep communities safe. In Logan’s case the agencies involved included East Ayrshire Council, Police Scotland, the Crown Office and social services.

The measures taken can include rehousing, normally in the offender's own community, and the degree of oversight by police and social workers depends on the perceived degree of risk.

Logan was also ordered to take part in the Moving Forward, Making Changes programme, a treatment for men who commit sexual offences. There is no set term for the programme which is aimed at reducing offending.

A Risk Management Authority evaluation report in 2016 identified a lack of clear project management, leadership, support, communication and documentation. In March last year the Scottish Government also put out to tender a further evaluation study.