CHILDREN as young as four are being left to play unsupervised at a favourite haunt of sex pests and drug addicts.

On one occasion officers found a boy aged four being looked after by his ten-year-old sister at the park, on The Level, Brighton.

Nearby at the time were a known paedophile, at least one registered hard drug user and a drunk.

Police are now appealing to parents not to leave their children unsupervised in the area.

And they are threatening to take any child they find roaming the area without an adult into legal protection.

Inspector Sharon Rowe who is co-ordinating a drive to clean up the area, said: "We have been looking at ways with the council of trying to make The Level more of a family-friendly area, bearing in mind its problems with certain types of people hanging around, but while doing this it has come to my attention that a number of mums and dads are dropping their kids off there.

"When we look at the kinds of crimes reported there, we are talking about serious ones, including drug abuse and sexual deviancy, and yet kids of four or five are being left there for hours with their ten-year-old brothers or sisters, and a fiver so they can go and buy some fish and chips."

She added: "We did an architectural survey of The Level a couple of weeks ago aimed at trying to 'design out' some of the hiding holes used by criminals, but trying to stop children being put at risk in these areas is down to their parents too.

"In future, if our patrols come across young children unsupervised in the area, we will be prepared to take out protectionorders on them."

The new crackdown comes after police revealed 180 syringes have been found in bushes at The Level in the past month.

It follows a spate of suspected heroin overdoses last weekend, one of which killed a man at his Kemp Town home and two of which occurred at The Level.

Among the measures being proposed for The Level include cutting the heights of hedges, improving lighting and installing a central police box.

Brighton and Hove Council is also planning to designate a "graffiti area" in a bid to cut vandalism in the surrounding streets.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.