A serial paedophile deported to Britain from Australia was put on the sex offenders register yesterday only hours after arriving at Heathrow.

Raymond Horne, 61, was placed on the register at Uxbridge police station, where he was taken after being met by police when he arrived on a flight from Brisbane.

Last night police and probation officers in London were drawing up plans to provide Horne with accommodation, where he will be monitored to protect the public.

He was advised that for his own safety he should alter his appearance and name, and live in accommodation approved by the police and probation services.

Judy Spence, the minister for police and corrective services in Queensland, said the state was “well rid” of the predatory sex offender, who has a string of convictions stretching back 40 years.

Horne is likely to be on the sex offenders register for the rest of his life but the dilemma for the authorities is that they cannot force him to live at any particular address as he has committed no offences in Britain.

However, Whitehall officials said that in similar cases paedophiles have been willing to accept the help of the authorities because they fear the potentially dangerous consequences of public exposure.

Horne is expected to be placed on level three of the Multi-Agency Public Protection Panel arrangement designed for offenders who pose the highest risk of causing serious harm.

It will involve persuading him to live in approved accommodation such as a hostel where there is on-site supervision and close surveillance by police.

Police also have the power to impose a sexual offences prevention order on Horne with restrictions barring him from contact with children and keeping him away from schools.

Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said the bill for supervising Horne would run into many thousands of pounds. “He will need to be found accommodation and will need a high level of police surveillance because he is clearly a high risk. That costs a lot of money”.

An indication of the costs of dealing with paedophiles in an emergency was shown in 2006 when police in Bristol spent more than £500 a night housing Francis Lee, formerly Robert Oliver.

Lee, 54, was moved into a safe house at the police headquarters for four nights after it was disclosed he was living at a bail hostel near a nursery. Lee was jailed in 1989 for the manslaughter of Jason Swift, then aged 14.

Horne, with his distinctive white beard, spent the flight to London segregated from other passengers sitting behind a curtain in the crew area.

He moved to Queensland in 1952 at the age of 5 and although he has never been back to England since then, he never took Australian citizenship.

Horne had a series of convictions for drug, assault and sex offences by the time he was 21 and in 1996 was jailed for 14 sex offences committed after he lured two homeless boys, aged 13 and 14, to his flat while he worked as a volunteer for a charity.

When he was jailed in 1996 after pleading guilty to 14 child sex offences the judge said he was “a persistent sex offender who preyed upon young boys”.

A British child protection expert said that Horne’s isolation in England, where he has no family or support network, might make him more likely to offend.

Paul Roffey, a director of RWA Child Protection Service, said: “He has already been identified as somebody who is high-risk. This is a situation that could only exacerbate that risk.”

The NSPCC said any offender with a long history of sexual abuse should be considered a risk to young people.

The charity continued: “Over the past 43 years Raymond Horne has committed horrific sex offences against children.

“The Australian authorities believe there is a strong possibility he could reoffend, therefore we believe he should still be considered a maximum danger to children.”

A person on the sex offenders register must inform the police of their name, date of birth, home address and national insurance number.

They must also notify the police of any change of name or address, if they are away from home for a period of seven days or more in any 12-month period, or if they intend to leave Britain.

The length of the registration period differs according to the sentence received but anyone who is given a prison sentence of 30 months or more is subject to an indefinite term of registration – usually for the rest of their life.

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