TWO sex perverts continued their contacts with paedophile groups while they were in prison, probation officers believe.

A leaked memo warned probation service chiefs throughout the country that Burnley couple Peter and Christine Thorpe "continue to pose substantial risks."

The memo, issued by the Northumbria service, states: "There appear to be no boundaries to their sexual deviancy."

News of the official nationwide alert comes as the couple, released in July after each serving less than seven years of an 11 year term for a string of sex attacks on children, fled for a second time after they were identified in newspapers.

The Thorpes, formerly of Harold Street, Burnley, quickly took to the road after it was revealed they had moved into a rented flat close to a school in Blyth, Northumbria. They then turned up in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, again just yards away from a school. But their past has forced them to move on within a month after local residents learned they were there.

The leaked document, issued shortly before their release, says the couple, who served jail terms for rape and serious sexual offences, have an extensive history of working on their own and together to target and procure children and vulnerable adults.

It reveals Christine Thorpe targeted religious groups to seek out contacts, often skillfully using aliases.

It goes on: "There is concern that they have been networking whilst in custody and it is the view of all agencies involved that they continue to pose substantial risks."

The pair were divorced while in prison but now are attempting reconciliation.

They were jailed in 1989 after Preston Crown Court was told Thorpe and his son from a previous relationship raped a girl in a flat.

Christine Thorpe admitted aiding and abetting rape and other sex offences.

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