A rapist who landed a job with a housing association while on licence from prison has been exposed by a regional daily.

The Stoke Sentinel has revealed Ian Mycock, who attacked Samantha Key in 2018 while she slept in bed next to her two-year-old son, was employed by Homes Plus this summer.

The mother-of-five branded the decision to hire her attacker as “totally unacceptable” after waiving her right to anonymity for an interview on which the Sentinel splashed on Friday, pictured below.

An investigation by the Sentinel found three tenants of the housing association who have claimed Mycock had been in their properties in the Stafford area, while the paper was unable to find evidence of any information on the Homes Plus website and vacancies portal about the declaration of criminal records or any request for them to be declared by job applicants.

As a result of the Sentinel’s work, Home Plus, which is responsible for over 19,000 properties in Staffordshire and Shropshire, has pledged to change all of its policies and procedures around vetting employees and has confirmed the rapist is no longer in its employ.

Editor Marc Waddington told HTFP: “Social housing tenants often don’t have a say on who gets sent into their home.

“Therefore it’s important that they should be able to be confident that the people sending them have done their homework on who they’re employing.

“I think a lot of people might be surprised at how the law currently stands on vetting of employees and how easily such a situation can arise.

“It’s encouraging that by drawing attention to this situation we have been able to affect some positive change for people living on our patch.

“We intend to continue to look at these issues, and I’m hopeful that in time there will be change that will be to the benefit of social housing tenants across the country.”

Les Clarke, executive director of housing and care at Homes Plus owner Housing Plus, told the Sentinel “immediate steps” were taken once the allegations came to light, in order to “safeguard our customers and colleagues in connection with this matter”.

He added: “We are deeply sorry for any distress or anxiety caused to customers and offer our sincerest apologies to anybody who has been affected.

“Housing Plus Group has procedures in place to deal with situations of this nature and they have been implemented as a matter of urgency. The member of staff is no longer working for the organisation.