A HAMPSHIRE panel for assessing offenders’ risk to the public met after a dangerous rapist had stayed at a Winchester hostel, an inquest heard.

Anthony Rice, who went on to murder Naomi Bryant in 2005, spent a weekend at Elderfield House Hostel in March 2004.

But it was only after this that Hampshire MAPPA (Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangement) met to assess his risk.

Zoe Peckham, of Gloucestershire Probation Service, speaking this morning at Ms Bryant’s inquest at Winchester Crown Court, admitted this was not normal practice.

She said: “It was not usual for the MAPPA input to take place after the first visit, but it was expressly recommended that he attended a MAPPA meeting.”

Earlier, jurors had heard Rice had been due to go to a hostel in Bradford, but this was scuppered when the local MAPPA raised concerns.

Langley House Trust, which runs the Bradford hostel, then suggested Elderfield House, in Otterbourne, as an alternative.

Naomi was stabbed 15 times with a kitchen knife and then strangled at her Winchester home.

Rice, 48, was on licence from a life sentence when he murdered the 40-year-old.

Proceeding