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Sex prisoners interviewed and pictured by editorial team

A South Wales Argus editorial team was given unprecedented access to two prisons – one of which houses only sex offenders.

The resulting exclusive by Rhiannon Beacham made the front page, three inside pages and also the editor’s opinion column.

The Argus has been swamped with protests from worried locals and public meetings have condemned the governor of both prisons, Phillip Morgan, for adopting the Home Office policy of placing sex offenders in an open prison.

Usk prison near Monmouth – a secure prison for sex attackers including murderers, rapists and child molesters – and nearby Prescoed Open Prison have been at the centre of controversy since six sex offenders were moved from Usk to the open prison in September and one of them absconded.

The controversy heightened when the Argus reported that a prisoner absconded from Prescoed almost every week.

The governor protested to editor Gerry Keighley at what he saw as one-sided coverage, and invited him to see the prisons for himself.

Gerry said: “I said I would go only if I could take a reporter and a photographer into the prisons. I was amazed when he agreed.”

Reporter Rhiannon and photographer Mike Lewis accompanied their editor on a tour around Prescoed and Usk, where they were allowed to speak to and photograph any prisoner willing to appear in print.

Gerry added: “It was strange to see people who we would all describe as monsters being taught how to lay bricks, plaster ceilings or even make children’s toys.

“They are the lowest form of life, yet I understand the governor’s view when he says that they have to be let out when their sentence ends and it’s safer for all of us if they have been properly rehabilitated through sex offender programmes.

“But we will continue to support the local communitiy’s call for the housing of sex offenders in the open prison to be stopped – because they are living in fear. As always, we’ve got to be on our readers’ side.”

Rhiannon said: “I felt quite intimidated with convicted sex offenders walking freely around us, and couldn’t help wondering what they had done to deserve being there.

“But I was quite surprised at how old some of the inmates – who had only recently been sentenced – were.”

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