HIS leg twitching as he described to me his savage crimes, violent paedophile Rafael Josef admitted a nine-year-old girl was “terrified” when he raped her.
Then, he calmly revealed that after being released from prison for that act of barbarism, he’d bludgeoned and forced himself on an older woman who later died.
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It was utterly stomach-churning to listen to this depraved monster, who was seemingly beyond redemption.
Yet, Josef’s doctor was convinced he wouldn’t reoffend when he walked free from the secure psychiatric unit where he was being held in the Czech Republic.
That’s because the former labourer – like dozens of the central European nation’s most dangerous sex offenders – had been castrated.
In a 30-minute operation, he had part of his testicles removed to repress his paedophilic urges.
Josef had even volunteered for the operation himself – and advised offenders in Britain to undergo the same process.
Speaking through a translator, he told me: “I wish I had been castrated years ago and would advise other repeat violent sex offenders to have the operation.
“It was painful but afterwards I felt calmer, more balanced. I was able to think more about my life and how sorry I am for my crimes.”
Despite the self-confessed violent paedophile choosing to undergo the op, human rights advocates have labelled the procedure “degrading” for the prisoner.
Never mind the rights of the nine-year-old who was raped or future victims that an uncastrated Josef might have later attacked.
Expect a similar outcry from liberal lobbying groups as Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood ponders mandatory castration for the most serious sex offenders in Britain.
A chemical – rather than physical – castration method will be used here. Some will undoubtedly believe that the worst of the worst deserve to go under the knife.
Making the procedure compulsory would be deeply controversial with the British medical profession, where consent is a long-standing principle of treatment with any procedure.
But chemical castration is mandatory for some men in several US states, including California.
‘Dangerous deviants’
Locked inside the Havlickuv Brod psychiatric clinic, 60 miles south-east of Prague, I was met with the beady-eyed glare of other paedophiles and rapists who had also volunteered to be castrated.
The Czech Republic is the only country in Europe to surgically castrate sex offenders. Dr Zelmira Herrova had overseen around 40 operations at the time of my 2009 visit.
The medic revealed: “Surgical castration is only carried out on dangerous deviants who have to request it themselves.
“They find castration a relief. The rate of re-offending among my patients is zero.”
Yet when the Council of Europe anti-torture Committee (CPT) visited the Czech Republic last year, it called for an end to physical castration.
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Its report said: “The number of approved applications for surgical castration continues to be relatively low, in comparison with the number of interventions actually carried out some two decades ago.
“However, that in itself cannot remove the Committee’s fundamental objection to surgical castration, which could easily be considered as amounting to degrading treatment.
“The CPT once again urges the Czech authorities to put a definitive end to surgical castration as a means of treatment of sex offenders.”
For too long, we have turned a blind eye to the threat sex offenders pose, considering the solutions too difficult or unpalatable
Government source
In Britain, a voluntary chemical castration pilot scheme in the South West will be expanded to 20 prisons in England and Wales ahead of a planned roll-out nationwide.
Drugs are used to inhibit the action of the sex hormone testosterone, which aims to lower sex drive.
Studies have shown using drugs to dull sex urges can slash offending by up to 60 per cent.
A government source said: “For too long, we have turned a blind eye to the threat sex offenders pose, considering the solutions too difficult or unpalatable.
“Shabana isn’t squeamish about doing what it takes to protect the public.
“As always, she will grab this problem by the proverbials.”
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