A weekly newspaper has been refused the right to identify a jailed child rapist and killer – despite his court case being heard in public.

The Northamptonshire Telegraph has been denied details about the new identity of Adam Stein, who has been sent to prison for four years for an unknown offence in an undisclosed part of the country.

Stein kidnapped, raped and killed six-year-old Collette Gallacher in Corby in 1986, but was freed last year – with the Telegraph successfully campaigning for the 63-year-old to be placed on the Sex Offenders Register ahead of his release from prison.

The Kettering-based weekly has now revealed the paedophile is back behind bars, but says police forces, Government departments and the courts have refused to allow its reporters details of public court listings involving him under his new identity.

The paper’s fight to identify Stein came after Collette’s family were told he had received a four-year jail sentence by an undisclosed crown court for an unknown crime.

According to the Telegraph, Stein’s appearance is “unrecognisable” from pictures of him taken before his trial in 1986 because he is “bald-headed, has shaved his moustache [and] looks younger than his 63 years”.

Telegraph reporter Kate Cronin, pictured, told HTFP: “Adam Stein was convicted in open court of these new offences. A four-year sentence suggests that these were not minor crimes. This is not the first time Stein has been released and reoffended.

“But because he has changed his name and is living in a different part of the country we cannot adequately track his progress through the court system, so we cannot report what happened at his sentencing hearing.

“There is absolutely no reason why Collette’s family should not be told what crimes Stein has committed. Open justice is a cornerstone of our court system.

“It’s vital that the public can see and hear what goes on in our courts, and especially so in this case because there are so many lessons to learn about how the most serious offenders are dealt with when they are released on life licence.

“Yet again the victims are being kept in the dark for reasons unknown to them, and to us. It only adds to the pain they already feel every day at the loss of their sister and daughter.

“This situation has allowed Stein to operate under cover of anonymity for 36 years. That puts the public at real risk of becoming another of his victims.”

Stein was first released by a parole board in March 2016, but within 16 months he was recalled to prison after committing driving offences.

In a statement, Colette’s family told the paper: “The protection should be for women and children yet it seems the most protection is given to the offender.

“The lack of transparency is shocking. What happened to open justice? Why is everything so cloak and dagger?

“We only hope this is not due to there being more victims at the hands of an offender who has repeatedly shown nothing but a lack of remorse and rehabilitation. We will never give up fighting in Collette’s memory.”