200 ‘High Risk’ Perverts And Violent Offenders Live In Edinburgh

MORE than 200 “high risk” violent and sex offenders living in Edinburgh are being monitored by police, it emerged today.
It is the first time the scale of the caseload facing authorities has been revealed.

The convicted criminals have been assessed as a potential danger to the public as they could strike again at any time.

There are 93 high risk sex offenders living in the city, along with 138 people classed as violent offenders.

A further 76 sex offenders who are currently in prison have been assessed as high risk and will also have to be monitored when they are released.

Concerns were raised today over whether there were enough resources and staff to deal with the number of cases in the city.

Edinburgh’s chief social work officer has published the figures in her first annual report.

The 93 high risk offenders, who were living in the community as of March 31 this year, make up almost one in six of the 637 sex offenders registered in the Lothians.

Managing the dangerous offenders is said to be “one of the highest priorities” for criminal justice social workers and police in Edinburgh. They are under the supervision of the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (Mappa), which were introduced across Scotland in April 2007 to coordinate police, prison, health and council responses to dangerous offenders.

However, just last month, the News revealed how police were warned violent rapist Sean McKay was likely to re-offend just days before he subjected a student to a harrowing 13-hour ordeal.

Michelle Miller, Edinburgh’s chief social work officer, admitted that the risks posed by these offenders “can never be fully eliminated”, but stressed high risk sex offenders are “under closer scrutiny than ever before” thanks to the formation of Mappa.

Risk assessments are carried out on all offenders, with the most dangerous people being electronically tagged, banned from certain places or being given a curfew.

The restrictions can also include bans on having contact with children, entering public parks and even approaching any woman the offender does not know.

Ms Miller said: “The safety of the public is a primary concern when deciding where (offenders] might be allowed to live.

“Accommodation must be approved as a condition of an order or licence and, in the most serious cases, offenders can be subject to curfews, electronic monitoring or conditions which exclude them from particular locations.”

She said that breaches of conditions could result in the offender being sent back to prison.

Unison, which represents social workers, said child protection social workers would like to have more involvement in monitoring sex offenders and the union would be looking to see whether more resources would be needed.

A spokesman said: “Everybody thinks there is a much better system in place now than ever before, but we are going to have to watch what implications this has on resources.

“People are generally surprised when they discover how many convicted sex offenders are living in the community, but the thing that worries children and families social workers more is the people who have not been convicted and who we don’t know about.”

Tory justice spokesman, Bill Aitken MSP, said the figures seemed high, but added: “It does seem that they (Mappa] are going in the right direction.”