DENNIS FERGUSON is a man with no friends, no family and nowhere to live. He has been hounded from at least four towns, and this week angry locals tried to run him out of a fifth.
He is reviled by police, politicians, the media and every community in which he has tried to live. Authorities are struggling to deal with the consequences of the entirely predictable - and entirely understandable - reaction of parents who discover a notorious pedophile is living in the neighbourhood.
His notoriety comes from a long record of sex crimes against young children, most seriously in 1988 when he was sent to prison for 14 years for kidnapping and raping three children.
It is this notoriety which led a judge to the rare step last week of deciding it was impossible for him to get a fair trial on fresh indecent dealing charges.
Judge Hugh Botting of Brisbane District Court permanently stayed the charges on three grounds: the weak case against him, the likelihood the time he had already served exceeded the probable sentence, and, mainly, the extensive bad publicity had destroyed any chance he had of a fair trial.
He was released, and a subsequent Gold Coast Bulletin headline - "Dob in a monster" - almost proved the judge's point.
In protests covered live on television, he was quickly run out of Miles, in western Queensland. Just as quickly, others gathered outside his new abode, on Brisbane's southern outskirts.
A judge released him, but the Queensland Government is copping it, trying to allow legitimate protests from fearful communities while avoiding a public lynching of a man widely despised but legally free.
It is paying $1000 a day for a church group to help him, providing accommodation and police to guard his government house around the clock.
On Monday, one man waved a noose outside the gate. On Tuesday another was charged with threatening to harm him (he rang a police station to do so). On Wednesday, a protester's sign said: "Just put him down." On Thursday, police vowed to confiscate any more burning effigies.
Locals at a public forum intended to soothe fears became incensed. Queensland's Police Minister, Judy Spence, tried to empathise with their concerns and assure them their children were safe. She won few over.
The next day, she said she feared for Ferguson's life, and repeated her point that most sexual abuse is perpetrated by people known to the victims.
"Dennis Ferguson is only one pedophile in the community, and he is the one we are watching 24 hours a day," she told ABC Radio.
After saying there was nowhere else for him to go, she promised he would be gone once the Government's appeal is finalised (presumably hoping he will be reincarcerated).
NSW authorities are familiar with the difficulties of dealing with notorious criminals who have served their time.
In Sydney, John Lewthwaite served 25 years for killing a five-year-old girl, before living in relative quiet until his parole was revoked when he was caught nude sunbathing in 2006. When he was re-released last year, his address twice became public, twice forcing him to move during media storms.
In Queensland, sex offenders may now be detained indefinitely on the chance they might reoffend, though they may avoid this by taking libido-suppressing drugs.
In NSW, prison authorities are drafting national chemical castration guidelines, while serious sex offenders can be subjected to continuing supervision orders.
It is unusual to know where released pedophiles live. Only the authorities can access the national register of child sex offenders, although the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, as a general principle, supports the community's right to know.
This week a prominent Melbourne barrister, Peter Faris, QC, called for a public register of pedophiles, complete with faces and addresses, but Queensland's Premier, Anna Bligh, said registers and publicity overseas had led to vigilante action.
One infamous British newspaper campaign to name and shame pedophiles led to attacks on people with the same names and the vandalising of the home of a children's doctor in Wales. The vandals mistook "pediatrician" for "pedophile".
If the Government's Ferguson appeal is successful and a jury finds him guilty, prosecutors may seek his indefinite detention.
If it is unsuccessful, the Government will have to find somewhere else for him to live, and placate another community.
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