TAKE HIM BACK

ONE of Britain's most dangerous sex offenders is to be sent back to the the English police force which dumped him in Scotland.

Rapist Steven Beech - who was released from jail in 2000 - has been living in Aberdeen under 24-hour police supervision at a cost of pounds 200,000-a-year to the Scottish taxpayer.

But a deal to send him back to England is expected to be signed within the next couple of weeks.

Police in Aberdeen have been so desperate to get rid of Beech they're denying the move for fear of scuppering the deal.

Evil Beech, who is constantly watched by two police officers in a safe house, was sent to Aberdeen from Cambridgeshire last March after telling police he wanted to live by the seaside.

Cambridgeshire officers paid pounds 80 for a one-way flight for Beech - saving themselves hundreds of thousands of pounds in surveillance costs.

But now he's told Grampian police he doesn't want to live in Aberdeen any more and has asked to be sent back to Cambridgeshire.

"Beech has been in Aberdeen for a year and is becoming increasingly agitated and violent," said a source. "He knows he's not wanted here and has been getting quite a hard time which is why he's keen to move. A deal will be signed within the next two weeks and then he'll be gone."

The source added: "The chances are he'll be going back to the police force he originally came from in Cambridgeshire.

"But there is also a suggestion he could go to Ipswich, which also looked after him for a while."

Beech, who has 115 convictions, mainly for sex crimes against women, was jailed at the Old Bailey in 1992 for raping a priest's 66- year-old housekeeper in London.

In October 2000 the 39-year-old, who has a tattoo of Christ on his chest, was the first sex offender in Britain to be banned from living in the same building as a woman.

Beech, who is originally from Wolverhampton, has been described as one of the most dangerous sex attackers in Britain by experts.

One forensic psychiatrist even diagnosed an "incurable antisocial personality disorder".

Sources in Aberdeen say his behaviour has become increasingly "volatile".

One said: "If he was unsupervised there's no doubt he would offend again.

"We just don't want him on our patch - he shouldn't have been here in the first place.

"It's quite simple - the man isn't safe around women and I dread to think what he would do if he was unsupervised.

"Why should Scotland continue paying for him when he's costing a fortune and he's not our problem?

"Police are denying the move because they don't want anything to scupper the deal. If news of the move gets out they worry we could be stuck with him for longer."

Beech was released from prison in 1998 but was back in jail after carrying out a further series of indecency offences. He was finally released in October 2000, when he told a policewoman he was "desperate for sex" and loved being 'rough with women".

Beech was driven out of his home in Sheffield when neighbours found out who he was and found refuge in police cells in Cambridgeshire and Ipswich because he had nowhere to live.

Neither Grampian nor Cambridgeshire Police would confirm the move. The Home Office said: "We can't comment on the circumstances of individual cases."

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