There surely can be no doubt about the sentence which should be imposed on Stephen Ayre, who served 20 years for the murder of Shipley woman Irene Hudson and, nine days ago, while under licence and living in Saltaire, abducted and raped a ten-year-old boy. He should be put away for life, literally. He is unfit ever to be out on the streets again.

The parents of the boy involved have every right to wonder about a system which frees people like Ayre to commit further offences.

Too regularly nowadays we hear of violent criminals who offend again while on parole or licence. The latest high-profile case is that of Damien Hanson, one of the men convicted of the murder of financier John Monckton. A report from the chief inspector of probation has been highly critical of the way probation and parole staff managed Hanson and co-killer Elliot White.

However, it has to be asked why someone like Hanson, who was considered to be a high-risk offender (it had been calculated that there was a 91 per cent chance of him committing further crimes), was released on parole halfway through a 12-year sentence for attempted murder.

The Monckton family paid the price for that decision and the subsequent supervision failures in a case which casts doubt on the whole system of parole and early release.

There needs to be something better put in place to reassure the public that violent offenders will be kept behind bars unless or until there is a firm guarantee that they will no longer present any threat to the public.