THE owner of a house in York is seeking safety reassurances from police after his address was mistakenly revealed to be the former home of a man at the centre of a child sex case.

Last week, The Press revealed how City of York Council had accidentally sent three people the name, age and address of a man facing several charges of making indecent images of children in 2001.

Now the owner of the house, who moved in a year ago, is concerned that vigilantes may target the address, or even him, in the mistaken belief he is linked to the case.

The man, who identified himself only as Mark, said he was recently visited by police who told him about the mix-up.

He said: “It defies belief that something like this has happened. It’s really quite worrying.

“My concern is my safety and those of the people who live in my house. I called the police and said you need to do something. There should be patrols in the area. They said they could send a police officer to knock on my door, but that could make things worse. I want to know how this happened. I want the mess cleared up.”

A police spokeswoman said: “The matter is being resolved by the City of York Council and it would be inappropriate to comment, other than to say, vigilante action helps no one and steps have been taken by City of York Council to minimise the risks. “In the very unlikely event of any repercussions, officers will provide a robust response and the offenders will feel the full force of the law.”

Pete Dwyer, director of adults, children and education at the council, apologised to the new occupant of the house and said the council would take any breach of confidentially “extremely seriously”.

He said: “Our first consideration was to ensure that we took immediate steps to ensure the protection of those who could potentially be affected. This included a request for North Yorkshire Police to visit the property to reassure and provide advice to the current residents, who are unconnected to any issues relating to Children’s Social Care.

“Alongside these steps, City of York Council obtained an injunction preventing those in receipt of the information from disclosing or otherwise acting on the information.

“The injunction remains in place until further notice. On being made aware of the disclosure, the council requested the City of York safeguarding board manager to investigate how the disclosure had occurred and, most importantly, make recommendations to ensure that no such breach of confidentiality happen in the future.”