A WOMAN who was repeatedly raped as a child by her step-father gave up her right to anonymity last night to speak of her outrage at his early release from prison.

Mandy Holstein took the rare step of going public in response to a parole board's decision to give Garth Valentine-Earley his freedom after only four years of a ten-year sentence.

And she has been further angered by the revelation that her attacker is being housed in a hostel only 20 minutes drive from her Darlington home.

Mandy, 29, of Firth Moor, says she fears for her own safety and that of her children. She said last night: "Now he is out I cannot cope. I am living my life in fear. I was hysterical when I received the letter to say that he had been set free."

On February 5, 1998, Earley was convicted at Teesside Crown Court and sentenced to ten years each for three charges of rape, the sentences to run concurrently.

He was also given four years each on three counts of indecent assault, again to run concurrently.

The court heard how Earley had inflicted a horrifying catalogue of abuse, starting when Mandy was only seven years old, which continued until she left the family home aged 15.

Mandy said: "All he has served is just four years. It is a disgrace. He should have got a lot longer than this and I should have been allowed to go to the parole board hearing and tell them what I feel.

"This was his first parole attempt and he has been set free. You never forget the abuse, and nobody really understands what you have been through, but I had felt safe knowing that he was locked up."

Mandy also criticised the decision to send Earley, who is now 64, to a hostel in Middlesbrough. She said: "I cannot believe that they have put him just 20 minutes drive away.

"He has no family in the North-East, he has no reason to be here. They could have put him in a hostel anywhere in the country. I told them I wanted him to be put as many miles as possible away from me and my family.

"The probation service said that my views have been taken into consideration but they haven't. They told me not to go shopping in Middlesbrough. I feel like I am being punished but I am the victim.

"He has never shown any remorse or shed any tears over what he did."

And she warned other parents: "He is an evil, perverted man who is now set free in Middlesbrough. Nobody can say 100 per cent that he won't touch anyone else. He could hurt somebody else's child.

"He has never shed a tear of remorse. He is only on licence till 2005 and then he can do what he wants.

"It seems that the authorities are all out to help the offenders but not the victims."

Peter Hadfield, assistant chief probation officer, National Probation Service Teesside, said: "Mandy will almost certainly have had a victim liaison officer.

"Victims are kept up to date with the offender's progress through the criminal justice system, through prison and when the offender is on licence.

"A risk strategy is done before they are released, and facilities are in place so the victim's views can be made known to the parole board who determine the length of licence and its conditions.

"A balance has got to be struck of prisoners who are about to be released and the possible risk to their victims.

"Strategies are in place so that offenders can re-integrate into society, but you don't want victims to come across offenders and be distressed.

"The parole board put conditions into the licence to reduce that happening."