FURIOUS parents packed a community centre to question why a high risk paedophile was allowed to live on their doorstep.

Around 200 residents attended the meeting, chaired by police at Shadsworth Community Centre, Blackburn.

It was called after they discovered Malcolm Ball, 60, had been living in a bedsit at Shadsworth House, Dunoon Drive, for the last three weeks.

Ball, described as one of Britain's most dangerous paedophiles, was moved to an address outside East Lancashire on Saturday night after police were alerted to a feature about him in a Sunday newspaper.

Blackburn police confirmed they had received a Home Office memo which contained unconfirmed reports that Ball intended to kill his next victim to avoid being arrested.

He was released on parole in 2002 after serving a seven-year sentence for sex offences on a seven-year-old girl and her eight-year-old brother.

Mother-of-two Michelle Edwards, 28, alleged that allowing Ball to live in an area with five schools and two children's playgrounds was like playing Russian roulette with their children's lives.

But police reassured residents that Ball was no longer in the area and would not be coming back. They also stressed that the 32-bedroomed property where Ball had been staying was not home to any other sex offenders. Residents plan to lobby Blackburn MP Jack Straw for a change in the law to offer more protection to children.

Speaking after the meeting Warren Turner, operations inspector for Eastern Division, said: "During the meeting some really serious issues were discussed, and despite attempts to reassure people it was clear to all of us that this is a very serious and emotive issue to deal with.

"As emotive as the issue is it must be stressed that people should not take the law into their own hands in any way, shape or form because it is not the way forward and I would urge anybody to refrain from that sort of behaviour."

Shadsworth ward councillor, Tony Humhprys, said: "The residents feel let down by certain people and this is why we want now to get a change in the law. We are aware that we are fighting for our children."

Coun James Shorrock said: "We need to all work together now to find a proper solution."

Police were today deciding if a warrant should be issued for the arrest of a homeless sex offender. Derek Brakenbury, 58, was arrested in Blackburn last week for failing to notify police of his address under the terms of his release from prison and was jailed for a day. Brakenbury told police they could find him on a bench outside TJ Hughes, Church Street - which magistrates had agreed to as it complied with the terms of the Sex Offenders Act. But Brakenbury has since disappeared and had until 5pm last night to make his whereabouts known to police.