NEW YORK (AP) – Psychiatrists have approved the release of a sex criminal who was among 27 held in mental hospitals on Gov. George Pataki’s orders after their prison sentences were completed.

Pataki revealed the imminent release of the sex offender during a news conference Tuesday at Grand Central Terminal. The governor called the development “disappointing” and said “I don’t think this predator should be out on the street.”

Kevin Quinn, Pataki’s spokesman, said the man spent four years in prison for raping an 8-year-old girl. He said the man, held at Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on Wards Island after his sentence, was expected to be released Wednesday.

A spokesman for the state Division of Parole, Scott Steinhart, was asked whether the inmate to be freed was Robert Warren, 42, convicted of attacking a young girl, and he said his agency was “assessing his supervision plan as of tomorrow (Wednesday).”

Quinn said the law entitles the inmate to a psychiatric review after 60 days in a mental hospital. After the review of the inmate at Kirby, he said, “Three psychiatrists determined that the person no longer needed confinement.”

Quinn said that as of Tuesday “no steps were taken to keep him (the inmate) in.” He added that Warren’s imminent release shows that the current system works to the inmates’ benefit.

Stephen Harkavy, deputy director of Mental Hygiene Legal Services (MHLS), which represented the sex offenders in court, said he understood that the inmate was to be released Wednesday. “The doctors who evaluated this individual found he had no mental illness,” he said.

As for Pataki’s comment, Harkavy said, “We don’t believe that anyone who is not mentally ill should be in a mental hospital.”

Last week, a dozen sex criminals – whose crimes include the rape and sodomy of young boys and girls – won their conditional release when Justice Jacqueline Silbermann in Manhattan said they were being held illegally.

Silbermann said they could be released if two court-appointed psychiatrists found that they were not mentally ill or dangers to themselves or to society.

Pataki denounced Silbermann’s ruling, saying she had created “rights and protections for rapists, predators and pedophiles who are about to be released from prison into our communities.”

On Friday, Pataki appealed Silbermann’s decision, leading to a temporary stay of her order. Meanwhile, 60 days of confinement lapsed for some inmates – Warren, for example – and despite the appeal, they were entitled to a psychiatric review.

“Yes, one of the 27 is going to be released, under the procedures that had been set up,” the governor said. “I think it’s disappointing but it shows that we do have clear safeguards for the civil rights of those who have been committed.”

Pataki said the stay will hold those who are held civilly through Jan. 10, but “the clock is ticking and we need by Jan. 10 good tough laws that increase the sentences and that confirm the state’s right to keep these predators away from our kids.”