France's Sarkozy pledges tougher paedophile rules

PARIS, Aug 20 (Reuters) French President Nicolas Sarkozy today pledged tougher treatment for sex offenders following a scandal over a convicted paedophile suspected of raping a fiv-year-old boy shortly after his release from prison.

Police said Francis Evrard, a 61-year-old repeat offender who spent 18 years in prison for raping children before being freed on July 2, snatched the boy from a street in the northern town of Roubaix on Wednesday.

The pair were discovered later that day partly clothed in a garage used by Evrard. He said he had been prescribed the anti-impotence drug Viagra while in prison, and officers found a packet of the pills in his pocket.

Sarkozy said Evrard should not have been released so long before the end of his 27-year sentence when the authorities knew he was still dangerous. New rules would be introduced to ensure such situations did not arise in future, he added.

''We cannot leave free predators, sick people, people who can kill and destroy children's lives,'' Sarkozy told reporters after meeting the boy's father and grandfather at the presidential Elysee Palace.

The case has won widespread media coverage and reignited a debate about repeat offenders just weeks after a new criminal law, which had been pledged by Sarkozy, introduced tougher sentences.

''A prisoner like Mr Evrard will not be able to leave prison solely because he has served his sentence,'' Sarkozy said.

''Prisoners of this type, at the end of their sentence, will be examined by a panel of doctors, and if this college of doctors recognises that they are dangerous, they will not be released. They will go to a closed hospital, where they will be treated,'' Sarkozy added.

Those who did not accept treatment would stay in the hospital as long as they were considered dangerous, he said.

Those who accepted treatment, such as hormonal therapy, would be allowed to leave the hospital with an electronic tag.

The measures would be part of a bill on sentencing planned for November, Sarkozy said, and a raft of measures aimed at improving treatment for psychologically ill prisoners was also in the works.

The first 'closed hospital' dedicated to dealing with paedophiles would open in the eastern city of Lyon in 2009, Sarkozy said. Another establishment would be set up for psychologically ill inmates.

The boy's father, Mustapha Kocakurt, told reporters after his meeting with Sarkozy that if a prison doctor had prescribed Viagra he shared the blame.

''If he gave him that, he should be locked up because at the end of the day he fed him in prison. He let him loose afterwards like a wildcat so he could feed himself,'' he said.

Sarkozy said the case was a ''disaster'' but added that an investigation was underway into whether the drug was prescribed.

REUTERS SR RK2228