RESIDENTS campaigning for sex offenders to be kept out of a bail hostel near their homes have been left stunned after it was revealed that a pervert who abducted two young girls was housed there before he was jailed - and committed sex offences in the town.

Probation bosses told residents that former hostel resident Daniel Belsham, 36, "was not a real sex offender" - but he has since been placed on the sex offenders' register.

Campaigner Walter Brown, 40, of Lydia Street, today said local residents were finding it increasingly hard to trust the probation service's assessments, which aim to ensure no dangerous offenders are housed at Highfield House bail hostel, Lydia Street.

Mr Brown said: "They are the professionals and they say we should trust their risk assessments. But this man, who has committed serious offences outside East Lancashire, has then offended while living in Accrington. It is ridiculous for the probation service to describe this man as 'not a real sex offender', when he has abducted and indecently assaulted children."

Belsham, of no fixed address, was jailed for 10 months by Preston Crown Court earlier this month after admitting abducting two girls aged 11 and 12 and was placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years. The court heard he played strip-poker with them at his former home in Heysham.

Belsham also admitted indecently assaulting an 11-year-old girl in a Morecambe shop in July 1998. He was sentenced for a further two offences of indecent exposure and another of outraging public decency, which happened in Accrington in April, while he was on bail. One of offences involved a 10-year-old girl and her mother. He has already been released from prison as he had served more than half his sentence while on remand in custody.

Before he was sentenced, Belsham was housed at Highfield House bail hostel. Whilst in the Accrington area he committed two offences of indecent exposure and one of outraging public decency. The hostel's address was given when he came before Burnley Crown Court in July. At a meeting of the Scaitcliffe Residents' Association on September 7, almost a week before Belsham was sentenced, campaigner Mr Brown demanded that the probation service reveal whether Belsham had committed the indecent exposure offence whilst living at Highfield House bail hostel.

But Lancashire assistant probation officer Peter Simpson refused to discuss the details of the Belsham case and told the meeting: "He is not a real sex offender."

The Accrington hostel is at the centre of a Home Office inquiry into another sex offender who went on the run after probation chiefs put him on a train.

Home Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw has ordered an investigation into the circumstances which led to a police manhunt for sex offender and former hostel resident Michael Wilson.

Wilson, 38, formerly of King Street, Southport, was charged with breach of bail after he disappeared for three nights before being arrested in Blackpool.

Nearby residents have expressed concern over refusals by Lancashire probation service to confirm whether sex offenders are housed there.

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope has called for a Home Office review of policies which allow sex offenders to live in bail hostels.

And Hyndburn Council leader Peter Britcliffe has ordered council legal experts to investigate whether the placement of sex offenders at the hostel is a breach of planning permission.

A spokeswoman for Lancashire Probation Service said: "The service is continuing to have discussions with local residents and Hyndburn Council about the management of sex offenders at the hostel."

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