THE victim of fugitive rapist Richard Guelbert believes he should have had his passport taken away to prevent him from leaving England.

The Derby Telegraph revealed yesterday how we tracked down Guelbert to a secluded village in Switzerland.

The 48-year-old was jailed for 12 years in 1999 after he was convicted of raping a 15-year-old schoolgirl and offering her to his friends for money.

He was released after serving half his sentence on condition he told authorities of any changes in his living circumstances, or if he moved from his home in South Normanton.

But in 2008 he disappeared and the police have been trying to find him ever since.

Guelbert's victim, now 27, said that, after his release in 2005, Guelbert should have had his passport removed to stop him leaving the country.

She said: "I would have thought it would have been standard practice for people who commit these kind of offences, otherwise what is to stop them leaving?

"He hasn't served his full sentence as far as I'm concerned. It just makes me angry because it feels like he's not been punished enough."

A spokesman for Victim Support said: "I think this is a very powerful example of how very distressing it is for victims of crime when the criminal justice system fails them."

The Telegraph revealed yesterday that we found Guelbert using a social networking website, then tracked him down to the village of Obermumpf, 16 miles from Basle.

When confronted outside his apartment, he said he was not aware he was supposed to be in Derbyshire.

Police said that his sentence did not restrict Guelbert from travelling out of the country.

A spokeswoman for Derbyshire police said: "He had finished his sentence and had to stay in touch with the authorities to sign the Sex Offenders' Register.

"If we have intelligence that suggests someone is to commit offences abroad, we can apply to the courts to have his passport seized."

Meanwhile, Shadow Attorney General Edward Garnier said it was the responsibility of the police and the probation services to make sure that offenders like Guelbert were properly monitored.

Mr Garnier said checks needed to be made to ensure Guelbert had been dealt with in the right way, but accepted that it was not possible to monitor every prisoner constantly.

He said: "As a released sex-offender under multi-agency public protection arrangements he should have been monitored pretty closely by the police and the probation service.

"But short of having someone observing him 24 hours a day there is only so much the authorities can do."

Harry Fletcher, the assistant general secretary of Napo, the union for court and probation staff, said probation services did not have the resources to monitor people 24 hours a day.

He added that they also did not have the power to take someone's passport away.

He said: "He would have been on standard parole conditions not to go abroad.

"There is no requirement that they give up their passport, however, and only the police would have the power to make him do that, not the probation service."