A NOTORIOUS and dangerous paedophile has gone missing less than two months after being freed early from a ten-year prison sentence.
Police last night issued a warning that Joseph Millbank posed a danger to children.
Millbank, from Luncarty in Perthshire, was jailed for six years in 2002 after he admitted 16 indecency charges against girls in Stirling, Perth, Aberdeen, Inverne
ss, Elgin and Dundee.
He abused 32 victims, aged three to eight, and captured their ordeals on camera, molesting one girl on her sixth birthday.
The six-year sentence imposed by Lord McCluskey at the High Court in Edinburgh sparked outrage in the communities where Millbank had preyed on his victims.
The Crown appealed against his sentence on the grounds it was unduly lenient and in June, 2002, it was increased to ten years. The appeal court ruled that Millbank should serve ten years of strict supervision.
Millbank's High Court trial was told that he had assembled a library of obscene pictures involving young girls over 21 months from January 2000.
The self-employed shopfitter travelled Scotland seeking targets, often using a pink party frock as a prop for his pictures.
He was caught after molesting a girl on her sixth birthday in Inverness. He left a fingerprint and was tracked down because of a shoplifting incident 15 years earlier. Police recovered a computer and disks at his home with about 435 images of children.
At the time advocate depute Derek Batchelor, QC, said: "In my estimation it is only when one sees the video images that one can appreciate the full enormity of what this man did to these children."
Tayside Police said they were appealing for information as to his whereabouts.
"Joseph Millbank, 47, was last seen in the Perth area on Friday, 27 June," a spokesman said. "Millbank was released from prison on 6 May and has now failed to comply with the conditions of his licence. A warrant has been granted for his arrest."
The spokesman added: "He has previously posed as a council official. Anyone who sees him or who knows of his whereabouts should contact the police immediately."
A police source said yesterday: "This man is a serious danger to all children and parents should be on their guard as it is inevitable he will try to strike again."
Millbank is described as 6ft 2ins and of average build. He has green/blue eyes, short dark hair and is bald on top.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts should call 0800-056 0944.
The full article contains 425 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
