A California judge has ordered a serial rapist to be released from a mental hospital to live in a Los Angeles County community after spending more than four decades in and out of state custody.

The Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Gilbert Brown issued a brief order saying that Christopher Evans Hubbart, 63, must be released by July 7.

Hubbart raped and assaulted about 40 women between 1971 and 1982, when he was sentenced to 16 years in prison. He was known as the “pillowcase rapist” for muffling women’s screams. Hubbart was paroled in 1990. However, he was arrested again in a new attack just two months later and returned to prison until 1996. Since then, he has been in a state mental hospital but officials now say he is fit for release.

Despite the release, Hubbart will face severe restrictions that include wearing a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week GPS monitor on his ankle. He will be accompanied by security people every time he goes out in public for the first six months to a year of his release. He will be transported to therapy sessions twice a week. Hubbart will also be required to report to the judge in San Jose for quarterly progress reports.

The decision to release Hubbart comes two days after a daylong hearing in Northern California, where the judge heard objections from residents. The residents were extremely disappointed with the court’s decision.

Local leaders quickly denounced the decision. Palmdale Mayor James Ledford said he was upset on learning the news and that the city is going to try to fight the order.

California laws bar sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools and other places where children gather, eliminating nearly all urban areas in the state. Thus, Lake Los Angeles residents feel outraged that their community has become a “dumping ground” for sexually violent predators.