THERE is something unsavoury about Iorworth Hoare winning £7m on the National Lottery.

There is a resentment not created by envy at someone having such good fortune, but rather by the fact that a rapist serving a life sentence is able to become a multi-millionaire.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. And with hindsight a law should be in place to prevent such things happening.

But the odds of winning a jackpot prize in the lottery for an ordinary member of the public are huge. Legislators can be excused for failing to take into account the chance of a felon on day release striking it lucky.

We may wish to deny Hoare his wealth. However, he has not broken any prison rules and can not be deprived of his winnings.

The real tragedy is that the lottery win has returned his past crimes to public attention. His victims are having to re-live the painful and harrowing memories of what happened many years ago.

It must be particularly galling for them to see Hoare benefit while still serving a prison sentence, while they continue to struggle to forget what he did to them.

If there is any way in which they can benefit through the courts from Hoare's new-found vast wealth then they should be encouraged to lodge claims.

It would be nice to think that Hoare could find it in his heart to voluntarily compensate his victims, or perhaps donate his winnings to groups helping the victims of crime.

But we suspect the chance of that happening are as long as the chances of any of us law-abiding citizens winning the lottery.