THE city council has tightened its policy on staff police checks after an undetected paedophile was employed as a park keeper and raped a 12-year-old girl.

Raymond Metcalfe, who had a history of sex crimes dating back to 1981, was employed by concessionaires to look after a local mini-golf course.

He was jailed for eight years last month but the case has forced the city council to look again at a grey area which allowed Metcalfe to slip through the net.

Because the paedophile was not directly employed by the council he missed obligatory police checks on staff who work with children.

Citizen enquiries highlighted the loophole and new city council procedures will now insist that concessionaires also carry out checks into criminal backgrounds.

New chairman of the leisure committee, Cllr John Fretwell, said he was shocked that such procedures were not already in place.

He commented: "You'd think in this day and age that this was the case already. Since it came to light about this man we made sure it was sorted out straight away. I'm a father myself and there's no way we can allow situations like this to ever happen again."

Metcalfe had attempted to have sex with the girl in his park keepers' shed but was disturbed by a customer who wanted to play miniature golf. He had befriended the girl at amusement arcades in Morecambe. He had convictions for indecent assaults on children as young as nine and ten dating back 18 years.

Commenting on the case, chief leisure officer David Owen said: "This has focused our mind on this issue. We didn't employ Metcalfe ourselves but from now on concessionaires will also have to have police checks on any staff who deal with children. They are happy to do that."

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