A mother has condemned prison authorities for allowing a man who raped her teenaged daughter to work close to a home where the victim regularly stays.Tewolde Mathin Selassie, who was jailed for 25-years in May 2007, has been spending time out of his cell as part of the Community Service Programme, and will be eligable for parole in October.Speaking to The Royal Gazette on condition of annonymity, the victim's mother told how; she came home on Tuesday to discover that her daughter's attacker had been working across the street; contacted the police, only to be told they knew nothing about it; and was told the same thing by the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Her daughter often visits her there.Admitting to being stunned by the news that Selassie was already eligable for parole, she angrily lashed out at Edward Lamb, the Commissioner of Corrections, for failing to tell her about the rapist's release, and for telling her that he was not obligated to do so.“The women of Bermuda have the right to know that Selassie is in their neighbourhood,” she said, “let's start there. He is a high risk criminal, he stalked children and in my daughter's case he sexually assaulted a minor.“And the fact that he is eligible for parole in October in spite of a sentence of imprisonment of 25 years, I just cannot understand it. We need to change the law for repeat offenders, especially those who rape children. Children know how much 25 years is, shouldn't adults?”The victim was 15-years-old when Selassie broke into her bedroom, threw bed covers over her head to hide his identity, sexually assaulted her, and then taunted her by telling her she should get her window fixed. While he managed to conceal his indetity during the January 2005 attack, he was eventually convicted using DNA evidence.While the family have since moved into a different home, the mother said her traumatised daughter's life would 'never be the same' after the brutal attack, and revealed that her daughter still has nightmares about the ordeal.“This man threatened to kill her [my daughter] while he was raping her, she still has nightmares and cries endlessly at times,” she said. “She doesn't live with me anymore but she spends the night sometimes.“She could have been at my house the day that man was outside my door, the girl was traumatised and still is to this day. And her assailant gets to be out of prison to work on a project directly across from where I live, a man who traumatised my entire family.“I'm begging for help to understand this. I'm looking for answers, I've even been to the Women's Resource Centre to find out where to begin.”Lt Col Lamb defended the decision to send Sealssie out on the Community Service Programme, where offenders are escorted at all times, and pointed to the Prisons Act 1979 which deams that prisoners who have served one third of their sentence are eligable for parole. Selassie had already spent three years in prison before sentencing.“Whether or not he is granted parole is another matter altogether,” said Lt Col Lamb.“I met with the mother of Selassie's victim after she presented herself at my office. I explained to the lady the entire process as it relates to inmates going out on Community Service; the difference between Community Service and Work Release; eligibility for parole (which again, is mandated by law) and how we ensure that inmates are secured and monitored on Community Service,” he said.“Actually, he (Selassie) is one of the inmates on our Community Service Programme and as such, is engaged in a variety of clean-up projects around the island. These projects are joint efforts between us, the Parks Department and Works and Engineering.“While working on these particular projects, which are a means by which inmates can give back to the community, inmates, including IMP Selassie, are at all times supervised and escorted by a prison officer,” he added.The victim's family has since moved out of the home where the attack occurred. The mother returned home from work on Tuesday to be told by a neighbour that Selassie was working with other inmates directly across from her house. Something Lt Col Lamb said he was unaware of.“I was not aware, nor were my staff, that the victim's family had moved from the location where the incident involving Selassie's offence took place to a location near where the Community Service group was working,” he said. “Had we known, clearly we would have taken alternative actions.”Asked if he would consider contacting the family of victims in the future he replied: “It would be a gargantuan task to do so but, it is worth considering.”