“You do not get a second chance to get your childhood back.”

Those are the words that should haunt whoever is responsible for David Cullen — a convicted paedophile who was facing a fresh slew of child sex charges — being freed to rape a young boy.

This is a horrific case.

While it is not clear at the moment if Judge Julian Hall was forced by legal process to release Cullen, no-one can, or should even try to, argue that what has happened is right.

Cullen was clearly a danger and one young boy will pay for the rest of his life for this sick man’s release.

Judge Hall has been criticised for his handling of paedophile cases in the past but it appears he may have had no choice but to release Cullen under law.

If that was the case then the law needs to change.

One of the foundation theories of our legal system is that guilty men should go free rather than the innocent being wrongly convicted.

Well such is the nature of the world now that innocent children should be protected if it means people with previous convictions for sex offences are held longer than normal in prison while awaiting trial on fresh charges of the same nature.

Some will hold up Cullen’s human rights as the reason why he should have been released if indeed the custody time limit did expire.

Well what about this boy’s rights?

We are not advocating locking up everyone accused of child sex offences.

But surely when dealing with a case like Cullen, with its previous convictions and fresh charges, a red flag surely should have been raised within the criminal justice system.

That system let this boy down. There must be no others.