Missing Paedophiles Named Online
Some of Britain’s most wanted child sex offenders are to be publicly identified on a new website. It is believed to be the first time that details of convicted paedophiles have been published nationwide by Britain’s law enforcement agencies.
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre has set up the site to appeal for information about missing child sex offenders.
They are offenders who have already been punished and then gone missing.
The missing individuals will have failed to comply with the legal restrictions on their movements.
A breach of these so-called “notification requirements” – conditions of their placement on the Sex Offenders Register – is an arrestable offence punishable with up to five years in prison.
Law enforcement agencies have previously avoided identifying paedophiles for fear of inviting vigilante attacks with the result of having them driven underground.
The website will publish the details of five missing offenders, giving their names, ages, a photograph and where they have gone missing from, but not the details of their convictions.
The scheme is being run with the Crimestoppers Most Wanted site, which is designed to help track down Britain’s most dangerous criminals who are on the run.
Jim Gamble, chief executive of the CEOP Centre, said: “The success of the Crimestoppers’ website in gaining the support of the public to help track the UK’s most wanted criminals is unprecedented here in the UK.
“Now we need to move a lot of that success towards protecting children and safeguarding communities from harm.
“While it isn’t new for the UK police to publish details of offenders on their own sites, this is the first time that a nationwide – and indeed global – approach has been adopted.”
The CEOP site coincides with the first anniversary of the Crimestoppers site, which went live last November, receiving almost 40 million hits and leading to 24 arrests.