ADVER, APRIL 22: Craig Taylor was this week found guilty of sex attacks on boys for the third time. He had previously been jailed twice but had changed his name, moved into a new community and offended again.

We ask all the election candidates for South and North Swindon if they think local communities have the right to know when convicted paedophiles move into their area

Robert Buckland (Con)

"Yes, because as a parent, I would be extremely worried to think that a convicted paedophile was living anywhere near my family.

"As a lawyer, I am concerned that the Early Release Scheme is an insufficient protection against the risk of re-offending, and would prefer to see sex offenders released only after a proper Parole Board assessment of risk.

"Vigilante conduct is and remains a criminal offence, but the housing of sex offenders has to be a matter involving the local community on a case-by-case basis."

Stephen Halden (UKIP)

"Lock these sex criminals up and throw away the key. This man should have been kept in jail. It is outrageous that he was ever let out of prison to attack children again.

"UKIP believes in a policy of zero tolerance towards

crime. This means cracking down really hard on every tiny manifestation of criminal activity.

"If you look at this question from the point of view of the victim then there can only be one possible answer. Yes we had the right to know where this vile monster was living. So lock him up and thrown away the key!"

Alan Hayward (Ind)

"I have taken a straw poll of opinions and included my own feelings.

"The point was very clearly made that if an offender was still such a danger they should not be out in the community.

"It was suggested that

the community should be informed about a released

offender so that they can be vigilant, but that giving names and addresses could only lead to a mob mentality and unfair treatment of someone who had been rehabilitated.

"The most telling comment was that the rights of children should be put far ahead of the rights of previous offenders."

Bill Hughes (Green)

"The public are only too aware of the existence of paedophiles who, as recent high profile cases have shown, can strike anywhere.

"Greens believe strongly in law and order being the responsibility of the police working with the public.

"Naming and shaming can lead certain people, whipped up by tabloid frenzy, to taking the law into their own hands - this is dangerous as the persecution of an innocent man in Portsmouth has shown."

Anne Snelgrove (Lab)

"Yes, local communities have the right to know. Our first priority must be to protect children. As a former local councillor, I dealt with a similar case and pushed for children's right to safely to come first, over the right for paedophiles to rejoin communities anonymously.

"However this must be handled sensitively, led by the police and within the law. People must not take the law into their hands.

"Labour will increase the use of electronic tagging and test the use of compulsory lie detector tests to monitor convicted sex offenders. Every offender will be supervised after release by 2007."

Sue Stebbing (Lib Dem)

"I want the police and child protection agencies to know exactly where convicted paedophiles are and monitor their activities very closely.

"I think that informing the local community will only encourage these people to go underground. Children must be safeguarded without encouraging people to take the law into their own hands."

John Williams (Ind)

"Against the background of the trial judge's recommendations of minimum sentence, Parole Board review, inclusion in the Sex Offenders' Register, and the possible use of ASBOs, in theory it should not be necessary to publish the offender's details.

"Sadly, though, there is a high chance of re-offending. So, until the Sex Offenders' Register is used effectively (reference Ian Huntley, Craig Taylor), until properly funded provision is made for their treatment before and after release and provision made for accommodation and supervision of high-risk offenders as a term of their release, the representatives of the community should have the right to know."