San Diego has suffered an intolerable tragedy.

Last week, Chelsea King, a 17-year-old Poway High School student, disappeared while going for a run in Rancho Bernardo Community Park. For five days, more than 6,000 volunteers searched northeastern San Diego and posted fliers informing the community of her disappearance. An FBI diver uncovered a body in a shallow grave on the shore of Lake Hodges a half mile from where she left her car. There is a “strong likelihood” that the body is King, according to Sheriff Bill Gore. Authorities believe that she was sexually assaulted before she was murdered.

DNA evidence found in her underwear provided a positive match to convicted sex offender John Albert Gardner III.

The same day King went missing, San Diego police received a report about a man in a black sedan following a 13-year-old girl as she walked near Bernardo Heights Middle School in Rancho Bernardo. Police have since towed a black sedan that was frequently seen parked in front of the Gardner’s mother’s townhouse in Rancho Bernardo where he had been staying.

About three months ago, a 22-year-old woman was tackled to the ground in the same park by an assailant, but she managed to escape. San Diego police have linked Gardner to the incident.

In 2000, Gardner was convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in the same community.

Additionally, he is a suspect in four similar yet unrelated cases, including the murder of Amber Dubois, a 14-year-old who disappeared Feb. 13 of last year while walking to Escondido High School. Last November, Gardner registered as a sex offender at an Escondido address two miles from the school Dubois attended.

There is no way to prevent every crime, but communities have a right to protect themselves against this specific type of sex offender. We need to demand access to this information.

We need to propose legislation that will strengthen Megan’s Law so residents can exercise the appropriate level of caution when a convicted sex offender, who has committed violent crimes against minors, is living nearby. Residents have a right to know when those who have sexually assaulted minors are in their area because they are a serious threat.

Residents have the right to know where this person committed these crimes in the past, which residences they frequently visit and where they are currently staying.

Violent sex offenders who have attacked minors should also be required to notify local authorities when they visit a listed residency. If these parameters were applied to sex offenders who have attacked minors or have repeated offenses, anyone could have gone online to www.meganslaw.ca.gov and seen that Gardner committed a violent sexual crime in Rancho Bernardo 10 years ago. People could have also seen he frequently visited his mother’s residence in this community and he was staying there for a period of time. With this information, Rancho Bernardo authorities could have exercised precautions that might have saved King’s life.

Aside from the current weaknesses in Megan’s Law, our criminal justice system has failed King, her family and San Diego communities when it granted a sexually violent sociopath a lighter sentence and the chance of parole when he was convicted in 2000. None of this would have happened if prosecutors had heeded the advice of a court-appointed psychiatrist in 2000. According to court documents, after conducting a psychiatric evaluation, Dr. Matthew Carroll urged the “maximum sentence allowed by law” when Gardner was convicted of sexual assault. Carroll told the court he was “an extremely poor candidate” for treatment because he refused to admit any responsibility for what he had done. According to the victim, Gardner invited her to his mother’s townhouse to watch a movie and then repeatedly punched her in the face and fondled her.

This girl will never be the same. Prosecutors and her family did not want her to face him again in court while testifying, believing that intimidation could skew her testimony and it would be emotionally traumatizing for her to face him again.

Yet, rather than working around these circumstances to include her testimony in court, prosecutors simply did not give Gardner a trial. Without this testimony, the judge recommended he be put away for 11 years. He was sentenced to six on a plea bargain and only served five.

The court should have set up a live video of the victim testifying from a separate room. It is outrageous that a solution as simple as this could have kept this man in prison and prevented King’s murder.

Gardner was registered with Megan’s Law in Lake Elsinore, about 50 miles away from his mother’s home in Rancho Bernardo. Gardner was staying in a non-listed residency in the same area where he committed his first sexual assault against a minor. The community had no way of knowing this man was staying there. King’s family should file a civil lawsuit against Gardner’s parents for negligence. This has the potential to change policy.

No amount of punishment or retribution can amend the pain of losing a daughter, but the system can be changed.

Give King’s family support. Strengthen Megan’s Law and adapt our court system to better handle sexual assault cases against minors.

Get informed about sex offenses at www.meganslaw.ca.gov and www.sdsafe.org.

8212;Tom Hammel is a political science sophomore.

8212;This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec. Send e-mail to opinion@thedailyaztec.com. Anonymous letters will not be printed. Include your full name, major and year in school.