A convicted pervert, with a history of sex offences against children, has been housed... opposite the gates of a Thanet school.

Ministry of Justice officials – whose job is to protect the public from offenders - checked out the address... and raised no objections!

Yet within weeks, deviant Michael Yaxley was seen by three young girls performing a sex act from the window of his flat in St John’s Road, Margate.

After hearing of the incident a judge ordered an investigation into whether the 42-year-old had deliberately targeted the school.

But now Canterbury Crown Court has been told that a charity – which helps re-house prisoners who are released – had chosen the property.

But what shocked Judge Heather Norton was that officials at MAPPA – Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements – had ruled it suitable for a man with convictions including indecent assault on a girl, gross indecency and attempting to get a child to watch a sex act!

On the MoJ’s official website it lists MAPPA as “a framework of statutory arrangements operated by criminal justice and social care agencies that seek to manage and reduce the risk presented by sexual and violent offenders in order that re-offending is reduced and the public are protected.”

The judge said: “One of the huge concerns in this case was someone with his background was living at this address. But The Crown Prosecution Service accepts that it was not an accommodation he booked on his own but he was placed there.

“It appears he was visited by officials from MAPPA and still nothing was done. Even so, he must have realised himself how inappropriate it was.”

Yaxley, of Lauseanne Terrace, Margate has been jailed for 20 months after he admitted the sex offence. He is on the Sex Offender’s register for life.

"MAPPA visited him and spoke to him – and he was left in accommodation right opposite school gates..the worst possible scenario" - Simon Taylor, defending

The court heard that the flat was situated “very close” to the school gates and in April this year three 11-year-old school girls spotted him standing naked in the bay window of his home.

The children saw him masturbating and reported it to school officials, who contacted police officers and he was arrested.

Yaxley was jailed in 2003 for four years for indecent assaults on a girl and gross indecency.

Eight years later he was given a 12-month suspended sentence for causing a child to watch a sex act.

In January last year he was then jailed for a year for breaching the order.

Simon Taylor, defending, said Yaxley has problems with alcohol, drugs “and his perversion behaviour” .

“At the outset it looked as if he had sought out accommodation outside a school, knowing he was putting himself in jeopardy and knowing he would be in breach of court orders.

“But in fact the opposite was true. MAPPA visited him and spoke to him – and he was left in accommodation right opposite school gates..the worst possible scenario.”

Judge Norton told Yaxley: “Despite your history of sexual offending you were allowed to move into a flat on your release from prison – a place overlooking the playground of a Margate school. – although I accept it was not one which you chose.

“Given your history of sexual offences directed at children, that was very unfortunate...to say the very least!”