Reid Unveils New Checks On Sex Offenders

Parents who use background information disclosed to them by police to harass sex offenders or fuel vigilante action will face prosecution for incitement, senior police officers warned yesterday.

The stringent safeguards to ensure that limited disclosure of details of registered sex offenders to those who have a personal relationship with them is not abused forms part of the package of child protection measures unveiled yesterday by the outgoing home secretary, John Reid.

He made clear that he will introduce a new legal duty on the police and probation services to consider case-by-case requests for disclosure from parents or guardians who want to check whether a new partner who is in regular contact with their children is a convicted sex offender.

But Mr Reid ruled out the introduction of a US-style Megan’s law, as demanded by a seven-year News of the World campaign, under which the general public is given automatic access to the name, address and photograph of all convicted sex offenders. He said it could drive sex offenders underground.

For the first time all 30,000 sex offenders on the national register – whether their crimes involve children or not – will be required to tell police whether children are living at their address, about any new personal relationships, email addresses, and passport and bank account details.

Mr Reid also confirmed that he intends to step up voluntary drug treatment programmes, including the use of hormonal medication and antidepressant drugs, which suppress an offender’s sexual urges. The home secretary strongly denied yesterday that such treatment programmes constituted “chemical castration” and said that as part of the package psychological treatment could be useful. Trials of such drugs have been going on in Britain for more than 20 years but the side-effects have so far proved too debilitating for the treatment to be effective.

A wider use of lie detector tests and satellite tracking technology will also be employed to manage the daily movements of the “vital few” convicted predatory paedophiles who have been released at the end of their prison sentences.

Mr Reid said: “For the first time there will be circumstances where members of the public will have the right to request details of possible sex offenders who may have contact with their children. You may call it ‘Sarah’s law’ if you wish.”

Terry Grange, chief constable of Dyfed Powys and police spokesman on child protection, made it clear that stringent action would be taken against those who abused the information they were to be given.

“If we start to get a mob gathering and public disorder, then we would be looking to arrest those who gathered, and seriously to look at the individual who provided that information for incitement,” he told a press conference yesterday.

Paul Cavadino, of Nacro, the crime reduction charity, welcomed the decision to rule out Megan’s law: “The pilot project allowing parents to ask for information about individuals must be operated very carefully. The wider information is passed around, the greater the risk that it will be passed to others who might resort to vigilante action.”