Buried in the labyrinth

Each morning at 8.30, the children gather outside the house that was chosen for the pedophile. My son, who is in the pedophile's target demographic, used to climb on the low brick fence in front of the house if I didn't stop him. So tiny is the distance from fence to house that he could almost knock on the door without leaving the pavement.

Psychologists have told the County Court that, when in jail, Jones refused to co-operate with counselling or to discuss his childhood. Who knows what there was to be uncovered? All the professionals who have assessed him have said that, given a chance, he will most probably reoffend. The only clues to his mental state are claims by the court-appointed psychiatrists that publicity causes him stress. It is said to be in the public interest to keep Mr Baldy's doings and whereabouts quiet.

Assuming the psychiatrists are right, I may well be part of the problem - and you too, for reading this.

I was working in Adelaide for the first two weeks of July 2005. The kids were at home with my husband, who was juggling madly to keep the household running. I arrived home, travel weary, on the evening of the 15th. My husband picked me up from the airport and, as he shouldered my bag, asked me if I remembered that Mr Baldy was to be released.

"Yeah. So?"

"What's the worst place they could put him if they were going to put him in our suburb?"

I looked at him with screwed-up face.

Then he told me. Kid central, as we call it.

The corner where the walking bus meets.

I didn't believe him. Then I felt sick.

Two days before, Corrections Commissioner Kelvin Anderson had announced on ABC Radio that Jones had been released under the strictest parole conditions ever imposed. The supervision was constant, he said. Jones would not be able to leave his new home without supervision.

The next day, The Age and the Herald Sun had reported "sources" as saying that Jones was "electronically tagged". Later that day, someone had tipped off the Herald Sun about where Jones was, and they found him. The reporter and photographer arrived at the house just as the walking bus met.