A RAPIST and more than 40 other sex offenders have overturned bans on working with children to pursue jobs that will bring them into contact with youngsters.

The convicted criminals have applied over the past 12 months to be removed from the prohibited person list so they can take up jobs with or near children, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information show a 41-year-old man convicted of indecently assaulting a nine-year-old girl has been approved to work unsupervised with children and young people.

The man - who was convicted in 2005 - went to the Administrative Decisions Tribunal to get lifted the ban on working with children.

In another case a man, 49, who as a 23-year-old raped a woman, 27, after assaulting her in a park, has won the right to take a job as a bus driver, bringing him into contact with children.

He had chased the woman as she walked her dog at night, then pulled her into long grass where he had sex with her. The man received a six-year jail sentence.

The Administrative Decisions Tribunal, imposing conditions requiring him to see a psychiatrist and banning him from smoking cannabis, said it was satisfied he did not pose "a real and appreciable risk to children".

But the tribunal refused to lift a working-with-children ban on a doctor who indecently assaulted female patients during medical consultations.

It said: "... there is a real risk that the applicant might physically or verbally abuse children if he were to return to child-related employment."

Figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph show bans on 29 sex offenders were lifted in 2005-2006 by the Commission for Children and Young People, 13 were lifted by the Administrative Decisions Tribunal and one by the Industrial Relations Commission.

In 2004-2005 31 sex offenders had bans lifted by the CCYP, eight by the ADT and one by the IRC.

The data show sex offenders continue to thumb their nose at the system despite revelations in The Daily Telegraph more than a year ago that perverts were seeking jobs as school bus drivers, teachers, sports coaches and even youth workers.

It is more than year since the Iemma Government flagged new laws outlawing sex offenders from working with children.

NSW Commissioner for Children and Young People Gillian Calvert said the legislation took effect this month strengthening the check system.

"Approvals to change a Prohibited Person status are not granted lightly," she said.