Sex Offenders Approach Outlined

The Scottish government is to outline its plans for managing sex offenders. The SNP administration has already begun work on proposals to release the names and pictures of offenders who have gone on the run.

{mosimage}Moves are under way with police and prosecutors to deliver a publishing scheme “in the coming months”. Satellite tracking for serious offenders, proposed by the Scots Tories, has also been discussed, along with introducing lie detector tests. The government’s plans on sex offenders – an issue which has attracted a level of cross-party consensus – will be outlined to Holyrood.

Kenny MacAskill, now Scotland’s justice secretary, was part of a committee of MSPs in the last parliament, which rejected publicising the names of all such offenders. The move had been called for by Margaret-Ann Cummings, whose young son Mark was murdered by a convicted sex offender in Glasgow.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats said that was the right decision, but added there was still potential for change. “We think police should have the power to apply for an extension to the period for which an offender can stay on the Sex Offenders Register,” said a party spokesman.

Scottish Labour has backed making public the identities of predatory sex offenders whose behaviour caused concern as well as bringing in legislation for agencies to share information when a child is at risk.

Conservative justice spokesman Bill Aitken said Scotland did not have a major problem with numbers of sex offenders. “The amount of grief, the amount of agony which these people can cause can, in certain instances, be little short of heart-rending,” he added.