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Council defeats sex offender ordinance
April 15, 2008 10:29 pm
By Eric Parry
April 15, 2008 10:29 pm
By Eric Parry
Full article: click hereDERRY An ordinance prohibiting registered sex offenders from living near schools, public parks and day-care centers failed to gain the approval of the Town Council on Tuesday night.
All seven councilors voted down the proposed ordinance after police Chief Edward Garone, child abuse experts and residents spoke against it at a public hearing.
[...]
Derry residents became alarmed in January when a registered sex offender from Connecticut moved to an apartment in town that was near a private school, a public library and a public park. Many were alarmed to learn that New Hampshire doesn't regulate where offenders can live.
The offender, Douglas A. Simmons, was sentenced to 36 years in prison and five years of probation for kidnapping 6-year-old Michele Spencer, strangling her to death, and then sexually assaulting her body before leaving it in a sewer drain in July 1981 in Norwich, Conn.
He moved to Derry and registered with local police the day after his five-year probation period was over.