Convicted paedophile Peter Hofschröer on the run from police

Peter Hofschröer, an Austrian national who has been convicted of possession of over 35,000 child sex abuse images, left Belinda McKenzie’s house on 6 July and is currently at large in the UK, according to a post on the “Justice for Peter & Barbara Hofschröer” Facebook group.

Belinda reported Mr Hofschröer missing in a rather rambling, roundabout post on her own Facebook page on 8 July:

At the end of a long, saccharine-sweet description of her meeting with Mr Hofschröer’s elderly mother, Belinda casually noted,

We’d just heard that very morning that Peter was wanted at 3 p.m. at Kentish Town police station, in order to be taken to Heathrow…But he never went and 2 days later he’s still somewhere in UK, neither the police nor anybody knows where he is…

Belinda expanded upon this extraordinary announcement in the “Justice for the Convicted Paedophile and his mother” group:Belinda’s laissez-faire attitude about Mr Hofschröer’s disappearance is rather puzzling, considering that he had apparently been released into her care rather than remanded to custody to await his extradition:

The latest turn of events in the saga, that Peter has now gone missing would be worrying, but I do know he has many friends and supporters all over the place of whom I’m not aware, so I am not overly concerned for his safety and wellbeing. I was told by the tagging company it is very easy to remove the tag around a bailee’s leg, so he will not be that easy to track down… According to another person currently staying under my roof he walked off with virtually nothing visible on him apart from the clothes in which he stood up, informing another housemate “they’ll only take it off me if I do take a bag.” But he did have things in his pockets, apparently…

She assures us that he is “safe”—but says nothing about the safety of any children who might cross his path while he is at large.

For example, we’re quite certain that the recent sexual assault upon a 5-year-old girl in Highgate Wood has absolutely nothing to do with Mr Hofschröer’s being at large:

To be sure, the playground at Highgate Wood is no more than a 10-minute walk from Belinda’s house, and is a popular venue for parents and small children:

This proximity does make us wonder what on earth the court was thinking when it was agreed that Mr Hofschröer could stay with Belinda until his extradition.

Of course in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, we don’t believe he had anything to do with the recent sexual assault against a child at Highgate Wood. But we would think that Belinda, who styles herself a “children’s rights campaigner”, might be just a touch more sensitive to the potential for temptation in having him live with her. If worse comes to worst, and a child is harmed by Mr Hofschröer whilst he’s on the lam, we sincerely hope that the authorities will take a good hard look at Belinda, who seems to have gone out of her way to ensure that he’d have a convenient window of opportunity during which to escape.

We hope the police are able to apprehend Mr Hofschröer with all due haste; if we were in their shoes we’d start with a careful inspection of Belinda’s basement bunker. Oh, and the free-standing building in her back garden could probably do with a good search, as well.

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UPDATE: 13 July 2017

All of Belinda’s posts on the “Justice for Peter & Barbara Hofschröer” Facebook page have been deleted. Currently, the following message from group admin Andy Peacher has been pinned to the top of the page:

If we’re not mistaken, this means that Andy Peacher has been contacted by Mr Hofschröer. We will be passing this information on to the police.

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We’ll leave you with this heart-warming image of Mr Hofschröer in happier days: