Young victim 'living in fear' since disappearance of freed paedophile

THE mother of one of the victims of a missing paedophile has said that her daughter has been "living in fear" since he disappeared. Joseph Millbank was last night still on the run after he failed to register with police, less than two months after being allowed out of prison six years into a ten-year sentence.

Last night, the mother, from Perthshire, said she was shocked and deeply concerned he had been allowed to disappear.

She said: "I have had to tell my daughter that he is out of jail already … She has already had nightmares and to hear now that he has gone missing is just totally horrifying.

"What did this man do to get out so early? My daughter was only five when he did what he did and she's not even a teenager yet.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that he has ignored the rules and disappeared.

"My daughter is old enough to realise what is going on. She is terrified that he is out and about and she might bump into him. It took years for her to start to get over what he did and this has just brought it all flooding back. She has just gone back into her shell."

Tayside Police have issued an appeal to the public to be on the lookout for a blue Vauxhall Omega estate car – registration W834 MET – which Millbank could be using.

Millbank, 47, was jailed for ten years in 2002 and was supposed to be subject to a further ten-year extended sentence because he is considered so dangerous. But he was freed on 6 May after serving just over six years, and was supposed to register weekly with Tayside Police.

However, he has failed to do so. Millbank was last seen in Perth on 27 June.

Police across Scotland have been alerted to be on the lookout for him and officers have warned the public that he poses a danger to children.

A spokesman for Tayside Police said: "He may be a danger to children and has previously posed as a council official. He is six feet two inches tall and of average build."

Millbank abused more than 30 girls aged between three and eight. He was eventually caught after leaving a fingerprint at the scene of one of his crimes in Inverness which matched one taken for a shoplifting offence more than a decade earlier.