A grandmother convicted of child sex abuse left town after being targeted in a poster campaign by parents.

Parents told of their relief since Sheila Williams moved out of her house in Watchfield, near Faringdon, to Swindon.

Earlier this year, worried mothers stuck up posters of Williams with the warning: "Watch out - convicted child sex offender about".

The 55-year-old was jailed in 1997 for sexually assaulting a young girl in Faringdon, near Wantage, but was released last September. She stayed with her son Darryl - although he refused to talk to her. Mum-of-four Katherine Curtis, 33, of Southampton Street, Faringdon, has two children by Darryl. She started the poster campaign to warn other parents and did not want her children going near their convicted granny.

She said: "I would rather she would live further away because Swindon is only ten miles away. It is better that she has gone away. We can take our kids around to Darryl's house as long as she does not come back.

"It would not surprise me if she came back to Faringdon. I am relieved she has gone but I still think she will come back."

Williams, a former military base waitress, vowed she would never re-offend. She said: "I have told them it will never, ever happen again. I am so sorry for what I have done." She consistently said she wanted to leave Watchfield to start afresh. In the last few months, a front window of her house was smashed and her son's car tyres were let down by vandals.

Story date: Saturday 24 April

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