March 2002 New police cell for rapist A convicted sex offender who made the headlines for living in a police cell, is believed to have moved to a new police station. Steven Beech, 38, responsible for more than 100 offences, is voluntarily staying in a cell at a police station in Cambridgeshire. He moved to the county from Ipswich, where he had lived in a police station for 10 days because he was considered a serious danger to women. Beech – who it is believed is highly likely to reoffend – was jailed for nine years at the Old Bailey in 1992 for rape and was released in 1998. Police officers escorted Beech from Ipswich on Friday He was originally escorted to the town from Sheffield by officers from South Yorkshire Police on 19 February after he was cleared by a court of breaching a Sex Offenders’ Order. In Suffolk, Beech was under 24-hour police supervision, but was free to come and go from the building. In October 2000 a district judge at Liverpool Magistrates Court imposed the Sex Offenders’ Order against Beech, who is originally from West Bromwich. He was banned from living with a woman without the written consent of the area’s chief constable, assaulting or attempting to assault women, using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour towards a woman, and being drunk outside any house. The order, granted indefinitely, was the first of its kind imposed by a court. A spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire Police refused to reveal at which police station he was living after being escorted to the county by the Suffolk force. She said: “A man who is subject to a Sex Offenders’ Order is currently being kept at a police station in the county.” August 2000 Police place serial sex offender under 24-hour surveillance Police began the 24-hour surveillance of a serial sex offender yesterday that they want to ban from approaching any woman in Britain. The operation to monitor Steven Beech, 37, began as he was released from a Liverpool prison, where he was sent last month after his conviction for the latest of 115 sex offences. Police began the 24-hour surveillance of a serial sex offender yesterday that they want to ban from approaching any woman in Britain. The operation to monitor Steven Beech, 37, began as he was released from a Liverpool prison, where he was sent last month after his conviction for the latest of 115 sex offences. Merseyside Police sought its highly unusual restraining order on Mr Beech earlier this week but the magistrates’ court hearing was adjourned until October for lack of time. Mr Beech is contesting the application and the hearing is expected to last four days. Mr Beech, who was deported from Australia 15 years ago, received his latest, two-month, conviction last month on a charge of affray, after he terrified two elderly women in Liverpool city centre. Last year, he completed an eight-year prison sentence for the rape of a priest’s 70-year-old housekeeper but he has since been jailed in Doncaster. Mr Beech left Walton Prison yesterday. It is uncertain where he will go, making the task of tracking him difficult. The restraining order, which comes under the terms of the Government’s recent Crime and Disorder Act, is the first that Merseyside Police has sought and, if breached, would bring a five-year jail term.