The dad of a boy abducted and raped by a “highly dangerous” convicted murderer has criticised a decision by top judges to allow his attacker a parole hearing.

Stephen Peter Ayre, 48, yesterday won an appeal against his ‘whole life’ sentence for the attack on the ten-year-old boy in Shipley.

Ayre will now serve a minimum of ten years behind bars for the sick ordeal he subjected his young victim to, only ten months after his early release from a murder sentence.

But the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, ruled that Ayre should never have been given a “life means life” sentence for raping the boy – and that the ultimate penalty should only be used sparingly in the most serious cases of all.

Speaking to the Telegraph & Argus, the boy’s dad, who cannot be identified to protect his son’s anonymity, said: “This is never going to be over as far as we are concerned. For me and my boy it is still like it happened yesterday. Now there is the risk of walking into him in the street.

“The justice system is unfair.”

Ayre was, until yesterday, one of only 36 people in the country serving ‘whole life’ sentences – and was the only non-murderer and non-mandatory lifer in the group, the Court heard.

A report produced before his sentencing revealed that he suffered from a psychopathic disorder, but was untreatable.

Lord Judge, who sat with Mr Justice Wilkie and Mr Justice Maddison, emphasised although Ayre can now seek parole after serving his ten-year minimum term “this offender is unlikely in the extreme ever to be released. “This particular series of offences were vile and ghastly. Given the fact he was on licence for murder at the time these offences were committed, any determinate sentence would have had to be extremely severe.”

Ayre, of Bingley Road, Shipley, was convicted of two counts of rape, one of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and one of abducting a child at Bradford Crown Court in April 2006. He was jailed for life and told he would never be freed.

The court heard that Ayre lured the young boy to his home, promising to show him a BMX bike. Once outside the property, he picked the boy up and carried him inside, holding a knife to his throat and threatening to kill him if he did not comply with his twisted demands.

Ayre handed himself in to police some time later.

The murder for which Ayre had originally been jailed was committed in Shipley in 1985. He bludgeoned Irene Hudson to death with what was thought to have been an iron bar.

Shipley Tory General Election candidate Philip Davies, who campaigned for the Government to publish a full report into how the murderer was allowed to be released, yesterday branded the court’s decision as “absolutely ridiculous”.