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Rapists and child abusers are moving freely around Europe because just six out of the 28 member nations have sex offender registers.

The case of Slovakian sex offender Eduard Peticky, who was jailed for life this month for abusing three children in the UK, has led to calls for an EU-wide register of offenders.

Peticky, 48, was convicted of gang rape in his home country, but moved to the UK just days after being released from prison.

Earlier this month Judge Peter Kelson QC complained that it had taken 13 months to find out that Peticky was a “dangerous repeat offender” before sentencing him.

The NSPCC said there was a “gaping hole” in child protection.

A spokesman said: “This could put children at serious risk of harm. UK agencies inform other countries when known sex offenders travel abroad. It should work in reverse.”

(Image: VOGLER)

The British authorities were unaware of Peticky’s convictions when he moved to Rotherham, where he abused the children, one of them just three years old.

There were no warning flags as – unlike the UK, Cyprus, Ireland, Austria, Malta and France – Slovakia has no sex offender register.

As of March 2014, there were 46,102 people on the UK register and police can apply for an order to stop those listed going abroad.

Portugal and Spain are setting up similar registers, but an EU-wide scheme is supported by many campaigners, including Kate McCann, mother of missing Madeleine.

Labour Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “European countries need to work together to protect the public.”

If there had been an EU register authorities here would have seen that Peticky had been sentenced to 13 years for gang rape, gross indecency with a child, robbery and theft in Slovakia.

(Image: VOGLER)

When he got out of jail in 2008 he immediately left Slovakia and moved to the UK. The Mirror visited his old home on the outskirts of Michalovce in eastern Slovakia and were told how Peticky and 150 neighbours had gone to Britain for a better life.

The life they were escaping was in a squalid camp, shared by 2,000 Roma gypsies. There were piles of fly-infested rubbish everywhere, tots being bathed in the street and a gang of kids, no older than 13, speeding around in a car.

We tracked down Peticky’s step-daughter, who had returned there after living in England and was in denial about his horrible crimes.

Michaela Balogova, a 19-year-old mum, said: “He wouldn’t do what they say he has done. He had some crimes here but not against children. They were from robberies.”

She said her mum Maria and Peticky moved to England as he could not get a job.

She said: “We knew there is a possibility to get benefits in England. Our friends, neighbours and other people who had gone there told us.”

(Image: PA)

She was 13 when her parents moved abroad and left her with a grandmother.

Michaela said: “She couldn’t manage so I was put in a children’s home.”

She joined her mum and Peticky in Rotherham when she was 17 and expecting a baby conceived in the Slovakian children’s home.

But Michaela said the move turned into a nightmare when her child was taken from her by British social services at three weeks old.

Michaela, now pregnant with her second child, was reunited with her son only after returning to Slovakia.

She said: “I won’t go back there now, they take babies away. Houses are better there, a lot of things are better in England but the main problem is they take children.”

According to figures in Slovakia, UK authorities took 121 children away from their citizens in 2014.

But Peticky’s niece Matilda still dreams of going to the UK.

She said: “They have beautiful country and a good queen. Thanks to her, all immigrants have places to live.”