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	A depraved serial sex offender jailed for threatening to kill a woman he locked in a hotel room should be forced on a rehabilitation programme behind bars, campaigners said.</p>
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	Robert Melia, of Shangan Gardens in Ballymun, was yesterday sentenced to eight years after telling his victims he&rsquo;d take her &ldquo;up to the mountains and chop her up&rdquo;.</p>
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	Judge Martin Nolan suspended the end of a ten year sentence on condition that Melia - who has a history of violent sexual offences against women - be of &ldquo;good behaviour&rdquo; for three years after his release.</p>
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	It is believed that at the time of this latest offence in May 2013 Melia was causing huge concern for gardai after he fled from the Finglas apartment in which he had been staying and detectives could not locate him.</p>
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	The 48-year-old had had previously vanished on gardai when he moved after he walked free from prison in 2007 following a nine year sentence for a string of sex attacks on prostitutes. He has also jailed for six years for raping a woman in the late 1980s.</p>
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	Ellen O&#39;Malley-Dunlop, the head of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, questioned if the serial offender had ever taken part in any sex offenders treatment courses while locked up.</p>
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	&ldquo;You wonder if somebody like him has ever been on one of the rehabilitation programmes within the prison system,&rdquo; she said.</p>
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	&ldquo;We would really want to see his 25pc remission automatically linked with a programme. For somebody like him, a serial sex offender, it should be imposed as part of his sentence.</p>
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	&ldquo;I know all the research says a person must be motivated to go on one of these programmes for them to work, but I think the public can only benefit if he&rsquo;s forced to take part.&rdquo;</p>
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	Judge Nolan &ndash; who said Melia had previously demonstrated extreme hostility and violence towards women - sparked anger when imposing sentences on sex offenders in the past.</p>
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	He suspended a four-year prison sentence on Louth man Graham Griffith for a sex attack on a teenager on condition he pay his victim &euro;15,000.</p>
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	Former civil servant Patrick Corcoran, who was caught with over 7,000 images and 21 videos of child pornography, also avoided jail when Judge Nolan handed down a three-and-a-half year suspended sentence.</p>
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	And a man who sexually assaulted his neighbour while her eight-year-old son lay in bed beside her has had his two-year was also handed a two year suspended sentence by the judge, which was increased to four years on appeal the Director of Public Prosecutions.</p>
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	Melia&rsquo;s sex crimes started in 1989 when he raped a woman in the UK. He was later jailed for six years.</p>
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	His latest victim, a vulnerable drug addict, fractured her ankle when she was forced to jump out of the first floor window of a Dublin hotel room in May 2013 because she believed he was going to kill her.</p>
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	Melia &ndash; who told the women &lsquo;I&rsquo;m going to bring you up the mountains and I&rsquo;m going to chop you up&rdquo; &ndash; later admitted charges of false imprisonment, assault causing harm and making threats to kill.</p>
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	At one point, Melia took two shoe laces from his pocket and said he was going to use them, and a neck tie he was wearing, to tie the woman up.</p>
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	&quot;How brave this woman was to escape and report it and to follow through with gardai and the court criminal justice system, which is a huge ordeal for any woman, is incredible,&quot; Ms O&#39;Malley-Dunlop added.</p>
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	&quot;I hope she gets all the support that she needs.&quot;</p>
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	The attack happened less than a year after the sex beast was sentenced to two years - with 18 months suspended - for failing to notify gardai of his address after his release from prison on serious sex offences.</p>
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	He had walked free from prison in 2007 after a nine year sentence, imposed in 1999, for falsely imprisoning four women in October 1997 and sexually assaulting three of them. Three of his victims were working as prostitutes at the time of his attacks.</p>
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	Melia had posed variously as an English visitor and as a football fan in Dublin for an All-Ireland semi-final when he approached the women.</p>
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	At the time Melia &ndash; who more than 20 previous convictions including robbery, burglary and criminal damage - also pleaded guilty to having a knife with intent to cause injury on November 1, 1997, and with hijacking a car, kidnapping the driver and robbing property from her on the same date.</p>
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	Anyone affected by this report can called the rape crisis centre national 24 hour helpline on 1800 77 88 88.</p>
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	<a href="http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/rehabilitation-a-must-for-depraved-serial-sex-offender-campaigner-30904303.html">http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/rehabilitation-a-must-for-depraved-serial-sex-offender-campaigner-30904303.html</a></p>
