When Alrick Roberts applied for a job as a security guard, he had a criminal past.

But Theo Dependable Security Services on St. Croix, the company that hired him in late 1990, had no way of knowing. Roberts had committed his crimes as a juvenile, so his records were sealed.

The company took the precaution of doing a background check, but the police report on him did not even hint at Roberts' earlier run-ins with the law or his ugly side.

WHAT IS -- The offenders sent to the Youth Rehabilitation Center receive no rehabilitation, training, education or counseling. They pass the time in this courtyard or in the locked rooms opening off the courtyard.

WHAT ISN'T -- The Youth Rehabilitation Center has plenty of electronics equipment, all used. James Hinds, acting director, says the vocational section is used as a storage room because the youths lack the educational skills to learn how to ues the equipment.

In 1987, at age 16, Roberts was charged as a juvenile with raping a woman in her 20s, according to police. They say he threatened the woman with a machete.

Roberts was allowed to plead guilty to third-degree assault. He spent time in the Youth Rehabilitation Center, the territory's lockup for young criminals, according to those close to the case.

On Oct. 27, 1990, Roberts was one of several newly hired security guards being trained by police Sgt. William Harvey in the use of a .38-caliber handgun. That is a requirement under V.I. law for receiving a license to carry a gun.

Harvey thought Roberts looked familiar but wasn't sure. But even if he had known who Roberts was, local laws would have prevented the officer from saying anything.

So Harvey taught the young security guard gun safety. He also taught him the proper way to draw, aim and fire his weapon.

Two days later, Roberts used a .38 to kill.

The Alrick Roberts story is common in the Virgin Islands where, unlike many states, the records of violent juveniles are kept hidden from the public.

The results have been devastating. This is what a Daily News investigation found:

• 48 percent of juvenile criminals are repeat offenders.
• Juveniles have committed 22 murders in the territory since 1989. V.I. law requires that young murderers tried as juveniles be released when they turn 19. Law enforcement officials know many are still dangerous -- but they can do nothing to alert the public.
• The territory's only juvenile prison is called the Youth Rehabilitation Center, but it is no more than a holding pen for the violent young, offering them no substantive rehabilitation, training or counseling.
• Youths in detention have attacked guards but have never been penalized. One juvenile tried to rape a female guard and another stole the detention center bus and went for a joy ride. Neither was punished.

• Most juveniles graduate to adult crime, law enforcement and justice officials say.
• The territory spends $55,000 a year to house and feed one juvenile. Juveniles with special problems are sent to the mainland, at a cost to the territory of as much as $125,000 a year.
• Because the Youth Rehabilitation Center has only 27 beds, many juveniles charged with violent crimes are not detained, they are sent home.
• There is no pretrial detention center in either district. So many youths picked up for serious crimes are sent home to their parents.
• The Youth Rehabilitation Center doesn't have the staff to do pretrial reports or monitor closely youths on probation or in community service.
• Juvenile offenders in detention range from 13 to 18 years old, but many cannot read or can read at only the first-grade level.
• Although 30 percent of the youths in detention are there for drug-related crimes, the center has no drug rehabilitation program.
• A program to deal with juveniles with psychiatric problems was started only last year. Before that, juveniles with mental problems simply served their time and were released.
• The detention center has no vocational classes and very little in the way of educational programs.

Anita Christian is a 22-year police veteran who knows the magnitude of the territory's juvenile crime problem: For 12 years she has been the head of the Juvenile Division on St. Croix.

Juvenile crime is out of control, she says.

"When I first joined the division, you didn't see the kind of violence you see now," Christian says. "We have seen a real sharp jump, especially in murders, rapes and robberies."

The Alrick Roberts case, police say, highlights the worst in the system.

St. Croix contractor Michael Caswell and his girlfriend, on vacation from New York, met in Christiansted around noon. It was a perfect October day. The couple grabbed their towels and headed for the beach. They were in love and wanted to be alone. They thought secluded Sandy Point was the ideal spot.

It wasn't.

Miles away in Catherine's Rest, Alrick Roberts was getting dressed. He pulled on a pair of camouflage pants, a cap and black military-style boots. Before he left the house, he put on a gunbelt with a survival knife and stuffed a .38-caliber pistol into his pocket.

He also grabbed a pair of handcuffs he had purchased in an army supply store.

Roberts climbed into his Ford Ranchero and headed to Sandy Point.

He was on the prowl. And he was armed and dangerous.

Caswell was the first to spot Roberts as he walked toward the couple sitting on the sand. When Roberts drew his gun, Caswell's eyes widened in fear.

Roberts handcuffed Caswell and dragged him into the brush. Then he turned his attention to the woman.

Roberts made her undress, then raped her, with the gun pressed against her head.

Roberts then forced the woman to perform oral sex on him -- with the gun still pointed at her head.

The gun went off, shooting her in the shoulder. She fell back, and Roberts turned to Caswell. He pumped a bullet into the handcuffed man's chest, then shot him in the ear to make sure he was dead.

Fearing for her life, the woman fled into the water. Roberts fired at her but missed. Desperately she swam out to sea, struggling against the surf and the pain of her wounded and bleeding shoulder. She treaded water for two hours before a group of fishermen rescued her.

Theodore Elizee is the man who hired Roberts as a security guard. He says that had he had any inkling of Roberts' past, he would not have given him a job that allowed him to carry a gun.

"The police record didn't show anything," Elizee says. "We need to know who these people really are when we hire them."