Dangerous paedophile Trevor Holland has won High Court backing to challenge a decision that he should stay locked up in a secure hospital.

Holland, 54, detained with a psychopathic disorder under the Mental Health Act, will now have an application for release reconsidered.

A tribunal in January decided he should stay locked up, but his lawyers told the High Court yesterday there was a loophole in the law and that because Holland was untreatable, his detention in hospital was unlawful.

Amazingly, it's the second time the same argument has been used. In 1994, there was public alarm after Holland was discharged from hospital by an earlier tribunal on the grounds that he could not be held under the Mental Heath Act because he was untreatable.

Judge Mr Justice Forbes, who described the case as a "very interesting and difficult matter", agreed to grant another hearing.

Holland, of Banbury Road, Oxford, was sent to a secure unit at Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, in May 1996 after he was convicted of affray at an Oxford pub.

In August that year, he escaped on a day trip to Chessington World of Adventures in Surrey. A Bicester family whose son he had abused was placed under police guard. It emerged that Holland obtained the family's address while he was in prison and sent them 18 menacing letters.

He was recaptured and is currently held at the Eric Shepherd unit, run by the Horizon NHS Trust in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire.

When Holland carried out the pub attack he had just been released from prison, where he served less than half a three-year sentence for gross indecency with a child.

The paedophile, who has used many aliases, has a long history of offending and doctors have warned he continues to pose a risk.

He was sent to a psychiatric hospital in 1992 after being convicted at Oxford Crown Court of exposing himself to a boy and his friends at Bicester sports centre. After being freed, he sent obscene letters to the boy after finding out his address from court papers.

In November 1994, he was jailed for three years for gross indecency and sending obscene material through the post. He was caught trying to entice two 13-year-olds into a deserted car park at Bracknell, Berkshire. His record also includes 11 offences of assault causing actual bodily harm. A 1985 conviction related to an assault on a 14-year-old boy who resisted his advances.

At yesterday's High Court hearing, his QC Richard Gordon argued that the January tribunal made a "significantly flawed" decision when it refused to discharge him.

At the time, the tribunal claimed it was entitled to apply a "safety test" and would not order Holland's release because there was a likelihood of further sexual offences against children.

It concluded he was "treatable" because he had an "intellectual and emotional" grasp of the issues in his case which, "with an element of self-scrutiny, could lead to change".

That hearing was also told Holland was benefitting from nursing care and supervision, even though he was not on a specific treatment programme.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.