Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

More convicted sex offenders live in Belfast; Portadown, Co Armagh; and Cookstown, Co Tyrone, than anywhere else in the North due to the uneven spread of supervised accommodation, an official report said today.

An inspection of hostels for recently released offenders found the three locations housed a disproportionate number of criminals, many of them guilty of sexual offences.