Paedophile named in newspaper is arrested

A convicted paedophile whose picture was printed in a Sunday newspaper was arrested yesterday on suspicion of failing to sign the sex offenders' register.

Tuan Quang Ho, 25, was detained in south London as a result of information received after an appeal in the News of the World at the weekend. He was taken to a south London police station, where he remained in custody last night.

Tuan Quang Ho was convicted in May 1997 at Kingston Crown Court in London of two counts of indecent assault on a 14-year-old girl. He was released in December 1997 and was initially registered as living at an address in south-east London. But by May this year he had appeared to have left that residence.

Detective Chief Inspector Bob McLachlan expressed his gratitude to the newspaper for running the appeal. He said: "I'm grateful to the News of the World and their readers for helping us find this man."

A spokeswoman for the newspaper said she was "delighted" that its campaign has produced such instant results. "We are positive that more of the named paedophiles will be located in the next few days. This illustrates that public awareness produces results," she said.

West Yorkshire Police issued new pictures of a man they want to question in connection with the murder of an 11-year-old girl in 1975. Raymond Hewlett, 56, was one of the seven men featured in the News of the World appeal.

Police said yesterday that they had launched a worldwide hunt for Hewlett, who is one of number of suspects being sought for the killing of Lesley Molseed, from Rochdale, Lancashire, 26 years ago.

The first of the new pictures shows Hewlett in a passport shot taken in 1995, in Milan. The other shows him with his girlfriend at the time, Marianne Schmucker, a German.

Meanwhile, the judge who jailed Sarah Payne's killer, Roy Whiting, for four years for an earlier sex offence against a young girl in 1995 has defended his sentencing. Whiting was convicted of kidnapping and assaulting a nine-year-old girl in 1995 and released after serving just two years.

Judge John Gower, who is now retired, called the four-year jail term a "perfectly proper, right and just sentence".

He said: "I have no regrets about it. I expect today the sentence would be heavier ... We are not a fascist state ... and we are not in the habit of punishing people for offences they are yet to commit."

The detective who led the investigation into Whiting's first attack has added his voice to those who say the sentence was too light. Detective Constable John Smee said yesterday that the attack had been premeditated and Whiting had been likely to repeat it.