Ze Selassie was already a convicted rapist with a long history of crimes against women when he sexually exploited and murdered 14-year-old Rhiana Moore last year.

One night in May 1999, Selassie jumped from some bushes and put a cloth soaked in an unknown solvent over the face of a woman who was getting ready to enter her home.

According to prosecutors, Selassie, then 23, dragged his drugged victim to a basement room in her house and raped her. He then fled, ripping out the telephone cord as he left.

He pleaded guilty to sexual assault in November 1999, and in January 2000 was sentenced to six years in jail. He was released from prison on parole just over two years later, on May 22, 2002. Selassie had already been convicted of a string of offences against women before he committed the rape in 1999.

In May 1998 he was convicted at Magistrates' Court of assaulting a woman and committing three burglaries in January and December of 1997. He was sentenced to two years of probation.

During the same court hearing, he was further convicted of two counts of prowling at night around females' homes and one count of trespassing in the dwelling house of a female and misusing a telephone.

For this, he also received two years probation with an order that he undergo alcohol and drugs counselling. He was still on probation when he committed the May 1999 rape.

The name Selassie is a notorious one in Bermuda, not just because of Ze Selassie.

His younger brother, Tewolde Selassie, was jailed for 25 years after breaking into a teenage girl's bedroom and raping her in 2005. The jury hearing Ze Selassie's trial for murdering Rhiana was never told of his past, in order for him to have a fair trial.

The media were, for the same reason, unable to report on the 33-year-old's previous convictions until he was found guilty of premeditated murder yesterday and jailed for life.

During his sentencing for the rape a decade ago, Crown counsel Peter Eccles told the court that a social inquiry report described him as a high-risk sex offender.

Selassie admitted he suffered from a "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" personality. The report also stated that he committed acts of voyeurism as a teenager.

Defence lawyer Richard Horseman told the court Selassie's parents suspected, but could not confirm, that he had been sexually abused in his childhood years.

Mr. Horseman also stated that Selassie volunteered to be part of a sexual offenders' counselling programme and was already on the third phase of it.

According to the pre-sentence report, Selassie started counselling for alcohol and drug abuse but stopped due to a lack of funds. During the sentencing, Mr. Eccles commented: "An underlying pathology would support that he needs treatment."

Selassie, who was married at the time of the rape, was indeed told to undergo sexual offence counselling by Puisne Judge Norma Wade-Miller when she sentenced him.

However, by 2007 five years after his release from prison Selassie was involved in a secret sexual relationship with Rhiana Moore, who was just 13 years old when it began. She soon became pregnant with his child.

The Royal Gazette understands from sources close to the case that Selassie was not under any kind of monitoring by the authorities between the time he was released from prison and the time he murdered Rhiana.

However, Rhiana's mother's own detective work the morning after she disappeared revealed that Selassie was the last person the young girl had called.

The Police aware of his criminal past arrested him at his home in St. David's within hours of the body being found on the morning of May 31 last year.

This newspaper sent questions earlier this month to Commissioner of Prisons Eddie Lamb and his deputy Lionel Young, asking what counselling Ze Selassie received in prison.

We also asked if he was subject to monitoring by the authorities after his release. Neither replied by press time last night.

We also asked the Police whether Selassie was monitored after his release since he had been labelled as a high-risk sex offender and what options are open to them for tracking high risk offenders after their release from jail.

A spokesman replied: "The Bermuda Police Service cannot and does not comment after a case has been put before the courts or after it has concluded. This is an age-old practice and we don't foresee it changing anytime soon."

However, according to a former Police officer who spoke to this newspaper on condition of anonymity, there has been scope under the Criminal Code since the year 2000 for the courts to impose supervision orders to monitor such offenders after their release. These require coordination between the courts, prison and the Police, and have an element allowing for the public to be notified about the offender.

Yet the former officer noted: "It is impossible to say if any such orders would have prevented the commission of a (further) criminal offence. Many other court orders have been violated in other instances, sometimes resulting in other serious offences."

Shadow Attorney General Trevor Moniz said serious questions were raised by the Moore murder case, and he believes there should be a full inquiry into it and the wider issues it raised.

He told The Royal Gazette: "I have a concern that a number of persistent, violent offenders are released on licence by the Minister on the recommendation of the Treatment of Offenders Board under the Prisons Act 1979 after having only served one third to one half of their term of imprisonment ... and prisoners released under licence are meant to be under supervision.

"It is clear that there has not been adequate counselling or supervision of offenders.

"This government would rather spend money on parties than boring things like supervision of offenders. There is clearly a need for a serious and public review.

"We have a society with a lot of social problems which aren't being adequately addressed until after the fact if at all. This is an ostrich society."