We want answers, rages father of 14-year-old girl raped at knifepoint by escaped mental patient

After Darren Harkin, 21, was jailed for attacking the teenager twice at knifepoint, her father demanded answers from the authorities.

He said: 'Who knows what he might have gone on to do if they had not caught him?

The low-security Hayes mental health hospital near Bristol where Darren Harkin was held for eight years before escaping and raping a 14-year-old girl

'No one seems able to give us any answers until an official report is finished.

'We need to know what went wrong and what is being done to make sure it doesn't happen again.'

He said his daughter had been so traumatised she could not talk about her ordeal with her family.

'My daughter was too upset to tell us what had happened,' he said. 'She told a female police officer who relayed it to us.

'Even now she refuses to talk about the rape. She seems all right on the surface, but she's just blocking it all out.'

He said he was proud of her for reporting the assault so that her attacker was caught immediately.

'We're pleased that Harkin pleaded guilty,' he added. 'I was worried a trial would bring all the memories flooding back.'

An official inquiry has been launched to look at why Harkin, who had been committed eight years ago for stabbing his baby brother to death, was being held in a low-security institution.

Staff at Hayes Hospital near Bristol were not allowed to be alone with Harkin because he was considered to be such a threat.

Inquiry call: Judge Nicholas Cooke

But he was allowed to keep a collection of pornography and horror films and was taken by staff to see violent films at the cinema.

Harkin admitted rape, burglary and absconding from custody at Reading Crown Court on Monday.

Recorder of Cardiff Judge Nicholas Cooke, QC, called him ' exceptionally dangerous', and ordered that he be detained indefinitely at the high-security Broadmoor Hospital.

He also added to demands for an inquiry, saying: 'How on earth could it be thought appropriate that someone who has murdered his brother be allowed to have access to horror films?

'How can it be that the alarm was not raised immediately after someone who has been identified as such a danger was allowed to escape?

'This is not the first time this has happened  -  I hope by now the Home Office should consider such things. This needs to be investigated.'

After the hearing Conservative MP David Davies said: 'I have spoken to the family of the victim many times and they are very angry with the way this case has been handled.

'What concerns me is that the police were not informed he was dangerous when he escaped.

'If someone is classed as highly dangerous then neighbouring police forces are alerted.

'But I understand Harkin's status was on the verge of being downgraded at the time of his escape.

The fault lies with the people who downgraded his dangerous status  -  the Home Office and the National Autistic Society, who run Hayes Hospital.'

Harkin came across his victim on her way to a corner shop near her family home in South Wales.

She later told a police officer: 'He threatened me with a Swiss army knife but when I told him to go away he grabbed my throat and dragged me away.'

After the rape, the girl told Harkin that her father was due to meet her and he ran off.

She walked to the shop where she told an assistant what had happened.

Police found Harkin close to the scene 15 hours after his escape in February.

Avon and Somerset Police said they didn't alert neighbouring forces that Harkin was on the loose because of advice they had received from the hospital.

A spokesman said: 'Police could only act on information from the unit, which said Harkin posed no risk to other people.'