A BRADFORD father has called for the police to share details of where sex offenders are living - after only discovering his neighbour was a convicted rapist and sex abuser by reading about it in the Telegraph & Argus.

Thomas Goodall said he had complained about what he claimed was Dennis Lavery's anti-social behaviour to police for months but officers never told him about Lavery's record despite him being due to face a second sex abuse trial.

The father of two children, an eight-year-old and a two-year-old, said: "My kids were within two feet of a sex offender. We should have been told."

Lavery was jailed last month for four years for sexually molesting a girl in her mid-teens between 1979-1980 and abusing her again in the mid-1990s when she was a young woman.

The 65-year-old was convicted by a jury at Bradford Crown Court of the two offences of indecent assault in Ravenscliffe, Bradford.

READ MORE: Rapist jailed for molesting teenage girl

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC told Lavery, of Kingsdale Drive, Bolton, Bradford, “you are probably still dangerous” when sentencing him.

After the guilty verdicts were returned, the court was told that Lavery had been imprisoned for 12 years in May 2008 for repeatedly raping a young woman in the 1990s.

Mr Goodall said he only found out about Lavery's past when a neighbour showed him a copy of the T&A which featured the latest court case.

He said he had involved police about a dozen times over the past year because of complaints connected to Lavery, whose garden backs on to the Goodalls'.

The litany of complaints included Lavery allegedly taking pictures of the family, shooting fireworks towards his neighbours and intimidating them.

Mr Goodall said he wasn't the only one reporting problems - the man who alerted him to the T&A report was moving because of alleged incidents.

The builder said: "When there's been police involved 10-plus times, surely they could have told us."

As a result of the alleged incidents Mr Goodall felt he had to put up security cameras and replace the gappy hedge adjoining Lavery's garden with a tall fence to screen his garden and home.

He said the police said they couldn't do anything about the complaints and he has put in a complaint about that and officers' lack of information about Lavery's past.

"They said they don't have to notify people but surely something should have been done."

Now Mr Goodall fears there is nothing to stop Lavery returning to his house, where his wife still lives, after he has finished his sentence in about two years' time.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “West Yorkshire Police works closely with partners in line with Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA).

“As such all MAPPA offenders are risk-assessed to identify anyone who may be at risk of serious harm from them. As part of this process, consideration is given in each case as to whether the disclosure of information about an offender to others should be made to protect victims, potential victims, staff, and other persons in the community."