THE former detective whose documentary exposed the Jimmy Savile child abuse scandal has said there are many comparisons between evil child killer Barry McCarney and the deceased TV star.

McCarney, from Trillick, was found guilty at Dungannon Crown Court last week of the brutal and sadistic murder of 15-month-old Millie Martin whom he had sexually and physically abused for several months leading to the toddler's horrific death on December 11, 2009.

Criminologist Mark Williams-Thomas, who followed the murder case on the internet, has told The Impartial Reporter that paedophile McCarney followed all the traits of a "classic child sex offender".

"Nobody will ever know why he behaved in the way that he did. He is a violent, predatory, child sex offender, a killer, a child murderer who behaved in such a way in order to get his gratification and probably a significant amount of that was sexually driven," said Mr Williams-Thomas who explained that paedophiles like McCarney are "very cunning, calculated individuals".

"By and large, they lead multiple lives. If they all behaved in a certain way it would be easy to identify them. What they do is they use their cunning ability to create an opportunity, which is what they need, in order to offend. He [McCarney] waited until his [then] girlfriend was out and he committed these offences. We are seeing consistently now babies being abused. 15/20 years ago that wasn't common at all; some of that is around the fact that that a baby can't talk. With regards to him, had it not progressed to the level that it had it may never have been known."

Mr Williams-Thomas believes McCarney would have continued to prey on and torture little Millie had she not tragically died as a result of his abuse.

"It would have continued, I don't think there is any doubt. A paedophile doesn't suddenly stop, they continue to offend. There is no doubt that had the child lived he would have continued to abuse that child or another child," he said.

The child protection expert watched the chilling CCTV footage of McCarney carrying Millie into the Erne Hospital, which was shown in court, and was "horrified" at what he saw.

"Many people that have read the articles in your newspaper will find it difficult to comprehend that a human being can behave in such a way. Committing those offences is one thing alone but then bringing a child into a hospital to get treatment is just horrific. For me, the CCTV footage showed us the totality of what he had done. She suffered a sustained attack, it was almost torture," he said.

Mr Williams-Thomas' disturbing documentary 'Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile' was shown on ITV back in September and sparked the Yewtree investigation by police which has resulted in a number of high-profile arrests in recent weeks. He says there are a number of similarities between Savile and McCarney.

"If you take Savile as being a person who created an opportunity to offend and created the access in order to do it; he was a very controlling, a very manipulative individual, he won people over, but of course his offending behaviour spanned 40 years. This guy was doing exactly the same and was just following the traits of a classic child sex offender that created the access opportunity; creating a persona, to which nobody suspected. He even involved himself in charity work in the past, but I would say it is highly unlikely that in some stage in his past that he hadn't committed other further offences. For this to be his first offending behaviour is highly unlikely," he said.

Mr Williams-Thomas believes more education is needed in order to keep children safe.

"We can keep children safe by talking to them. I guess the message is just be careful, don't give anyone the opportunity to offend, be there and as your children grow older you can educate them. Tell them where the dangers are and enable them to safeguard themselves. The best person to keep a child safe is the child, that's why I believe through education we can go a lot further in keeping children safe. We need to make sure children understand. Sadly our education system at the present moment doesn't cater for that," he said.