The release of a notorious sex offender into the community without hostel accommodation “demonstrates that our probation system was broken”, the county’s police commissioner said.

Swindon Crown Court heard last week that Peter Kis, 88, had been released from prison in April after serving part of a 42 month jail sentence for molesting a child.

Space could not be found in a halfway house or hostel, so he was put up by the council in a house in Barnum Court, Rodbourne.

Within eight weeks of his release he was back in the cells after performing a sex act on himself in front of an eight-year-old girl and her younger sister, trying to beckon the pair towards him. A neighbour confronted him and, despite his efforts to pull up his trousers, was left with his genitals on show.

Kis, whose record of sex offences dates back to the 1960s, was jailed for two years and given an extended three year licence period after Judge Jason Taylor QC ruled him to be dangerous.

The octogenarian’s lawyer said his client claimed he had received only telephone contact from probation. That suggestion was countered by the Probation Service, with a spokesman telling the Adver Kis had been seen face-to-face.

Following the hearing, Wiltshire and Swindon Police and Crime Commissioner Angus Macpherson said: “This case demonstrates that our probation system was broken, and I very much hope that the recent announcement that the service will now return to public control, reversing former Justice Secretary Chris Grayling’s part-privatisation model, will start to rebuild it so that people can, again, have faith in a service that will protect the public and rehabilitate offenders.

“I feel it is the role of the PCC to play a part in the probation system, as part of a joined up approach, where they form part of a whole to help manage the governance of the criminal justice system alongside the likes of the Criminal Justice Board, police, courts and probation service – ensuring the service is held to account and standards are scrutinised.”