WHEN they brought the gallows from Reading Jail to install in Usk prison almost a century ago the whole town turned out to cheer. We live in more enlightened times.

The number of people who would like to see a return to hanging for the rape of a child can nowadays be counted on the toes and fingers of several thousand hands and feet.

"I have heard one lady in Usk arguing passionately for the rights of prisoners and expressing hopes for the rehabilitation of sex offenders back into society."

David Davies, Assembly member for Monmouthshire, takes a sharp intake of breath.

"It is a minority view, I have to say. I respect her for having the courage to put it, but as a minority view they don't come much more minor. "Usk feels betrayed, and betrayed people are angry people."

When child rapist Robert Neil Stokes absconded from Prescoed open prison near Usk only 48 hours after having arrived there a ripple of fear followed by a wave of anger passed through Usk and its surrounding villages.

Once Stokes was behind bars, where most locals thought he should have been in the first place, this anger turned towards government policies which as local people see it, treats sex criminals as victims and in so doing places children in grave danger.

With the old Usk prison and Prescoed barely three miles away on its doorstep the town could hardly be accused of 'nimbyism' 77-year-old Mr John Morgan, a former personnel officer who lives in the town said. "Prescoed was a Borstal with some pretty rough lads who from time to time would escape. But that's not the same thing as having sex offenders on your doorstep.

"I am a grand-parent and know the fear that the escape of this man generated. Children play in the lanes and fields around here. It is an innocence that can so easily be exploited."

At Usk Town Playgroup Mrs Carol Banfield opens the door only after strangers have positively identified themselves. No children can be collected other by than their parents unless the name of the adult temporarily in charge of them appears on a list.

"Ordinary prisoners used to be let out to do odd jobs locally. Nobody minded because they were not sex offenders. That has completely changed. The local mood has very much hardened," she says. Paul Starling, chairman of Usk Residents' Action Group, expands on the same theme.

"We've had two prisons in our back yards for years and have made the best of it. But this is a step too far," he says.

"The new Home Office policy imposed upon us is that sex offenders will be moved from supervised to unsupervised work, the ultimate plan being for them to be integrated back into the community.

"Since most of them will not return to their home towns our part of South Wales will be a magnet towards which sex offenders are drawn. "We will do our fair share of taking prisoners but we will not become a dumping ground."

John Spenceley, of St Mary's Way, Usk, a former town mayor, said Stokes' escape came not long after the town council had been taken on a guided tour of Prescoed - a gesture intended to re-assure them.

"What has horrified people is that sex offenders are no longer required to admit guilt or show contrition before they go out into society. That's new, and it's not welcome."

In the newsagents and speciality shops of the prosperous little town the talk was of the absconding of a sex attacker which had come hard on the heels of an armed robbery.

Maureen Jones and her friend Tanya Bates, both mothers and both of whom work in Cozens bakery and tea shop, were frightened and angry. "The morning after the escape I was in here at 6.30 am by myself. He could easily have come in demanding money," Ms Jones said.

"Mothers aren't taking their eyes of their children for an instant," Tanya added. "What happened is scary."

David Davies, the local AM, is a popular figure who having heard the protests of his constituents is preparing to lay them at the door of Paul Coggins, the prisons minister.

"The statistics on escapes from open prisons are horrific. Stokes absconded after being at Prescoed for less than 48 hours," he says. "Secure containment for serious sex offenders has to be the only serious option. Usk has been very liberal in its treatment of prisoners. Now it feels betrayed."

As we speak we are having a half-pint in the Cross Keys pub. From behind the bar the strains of I Want To Break Free by Queen was just audible - the people of Usk would not have found that funny.