Probe into blunder over paedophile

An inquiry into how a convicted paedophile came to be housed next
to a children’s home and later abducted a 13-year-old boy has been
launched by Birmingham Council.

Social services announced the inquiry after Patrick Marsh was
sentenced to four and a half years in prison at Birmingham Crown
Court last week for taking the child, who was in the council’s
care.

The council’s deputy leader, John Hemming, said: “I have been
concerned about the council allocating inappropriate people housing
in a number of inappropriate locations and wish to see a full
investigation into why this happened.”

Marsh was placed in council accommodation in 2001 with the help of
a multi-agency public protection panel, made up of the police, the
probation service, housing, social care and education.

Hemming said he had also intervened in a case involving a person
with a history of drugs offences who had been placed in a sheltered
housing scheme for older people and was involved in a brawl with
residents.

In 2002, the housing department created a specialist post to better
co-ordinate and create more robust procedures relating to the
allocation of housing to high-risk offenders in the community.