Missing Bradford sex offender found

A CONVICTED sex offender who absconded from a Yorkshire hospital while on unsupervised leave was today found by police in Liverpool.

Mohammed Rafiq Passwala was discovered by officers working for West Yorkshire Police's Homicide and Major Enquiry Team and was detained under the Mental Health Act.

Passwala, 53 and from Bradford, had been branded a danger to women and young children. He was convicted of sex offences in 1996. He had not been seen since last Thursday when he left Fieldhead Hospital in Wakefield.

Only minutes before his recapture, police issued CCTV pictures of Passwala, in traditional Asian dress, at Dewsbury bus station.Police established that after leaving the hospital, he took a taxi to Dewsbury and then caught a bus to Leeds city centre.

When news of his escape was revealed, Conservative MP Philip Davies (Shipley), said: "It is completely unacceptable that someone who is clearly acknowledged as dangerous should be given any form of unsupervised leave. "I do not know why this man has not been properly supervised at all times and I have no idea how they could have allowed this to happen.

"The priority should always be the safety of the public. Whatever the reason was I don't think there's a good enough excuse to give him any form of unsupervised leave. People are now at risk." Senior Bradford councillor Chris Greaves, (Con., Wharfedale), added: "No doubt some well-meaning psychiatrist who has his or her head firmly in the clouds is responsible. I thought the idea of psychiatric hospitals was that they were places of secure accommodation."