IN THE WORDS of Mr Justice Richard Curtis, who said he should be jailed for ever, Howard Hughes, who raped and savagely murdered seven-year-old Sophie Hook, was a "fiend."

However, what is perhaps most worrying for parents is that fiends like him - and nationally there are an estimated 5,000 convicted sex offenders obsessed with having sex with children - may dwell in their community.

The monster Hughes, for instance, was known in the North Wales locality where his evil crimes were committed, as a threat to young children.

But that knowledge did not save little Sophie Hook.

For only after carrying out his warped fantasies to the extreme is his menace now caged, hopefully for good.

Let, then, the hope of Mr Justice Curtis that Sophie will have not died in vain be fulfilled with swift action by government on his call for the law to be changed to protect society from such evil men through greater supervision of convicted paedophiles.

True, among the steps already being taken, are the setting up of a register of sex offenders, compulsory DNA tests for those convicted and a new law to ban them from even trying to get a job that involves working with children.

But if the acknowledged rate of re-offending by paedophiles is a measure of the determination of these people to fulfil their sick and dreadful lusts, then, coupled with the judge's concern, it is right to wonder whether these moves are enough.

Certainly, one step which might be considered is that of stripping convicted sex offenders of their anonymity when they return to the community after serving their sentences.

For, even with the existence of a register of such offenders, it remains easy for these evil men to dwell in the community without their neighbours and parents being aware of their potential menace and so being able to be on guard against it.

Perhaps, then, the American system of deliberately and publicly identifying convicted sex offenders in the community needs to be considered.

Admittedly, this is a harsh invasion of personal liberty, especially when the offender, having been released from prison, might be said to have paid his debt to society.

But though it would be severely practical, many people would regard putting the safety and lives of little children before the rights of convicted sex offenders as a right and sensible priority - even if for offenders it meant the lifetime penalty of being turned into social lepers wherever they chose to live.

And ruthless though this measure would be, we are sure that, for many people, even it would fall short of meeting Mr Justice Curtis's call of better protection for society from these evil men.

Others would urge chemical or surgical castration and even the hangman's rope as the best deterrent.

Certainly, it is hard to show mercy for such monsters.

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