Registered Tayside sex offenders disclosed

The first disclosures have been made to parents and carers in Tayside about registered sex offenders who have access to their children.

Tayside Police said today that information had been confirmed in two cases as a result of calls from members of the public.

The force is conducting a nine-month Child Sex Offender Community Disclosure Scheme, which has just reached its halfway point and was described by a senior officer as “going very well”.

So far 26 applications for disclosure have been made. Although only two resulted in information being given out, it’s understood a number of others resulted in police intervention “behind the scenes”.

“The number of applications is reasonable, compared with a similar pilot scheme which was conducted down south,” said Chief Inspector Eric Knox, who is in charge of the project.

“The public have been very good. It’s not the case that people are just phoning up and saying they are interested in some guy.

“The calls we are getting are from people who have been told something about a person who has access to their children, and on a number of occasions we have been able to provide reassurance that no information is held on them.

“There have been a couple of occasions where we have disclosed information. This information has been confirming what they already know.

“One case involved a person with children who had been told that a neighbour was a registered sex offender. We did checks and it turned out that was the case.

“We were able to confirm what the person had been told and given advice on what to do in order to protect their children.

“There have also been a number of occasions where we have had intelligence and done things behind the scenes, ourselves and the social work department.”

The pilot, which is backed by the Scottish Government, allows parents, carers and guardians of under-18s to register a child protection interest in a named individual with access to the child.

Police will be alerted to concerns with a presumption that they will inform the parent, carer or guardian if the person has convictions for sex offences.

If a youngster is found to be at a serious risk of harm, child protection measures will be put into action.

Chief Inspector Knox said, “The emphasis for us is not just about disclosure, and we will only disclose if it is necessary to protect the child.

“If there are other routes that we can take in order to achieve that then we will do that as well. There are a whole range of things we can do.”

An evaluation of the pilot, which ends in May, is under way and could lead to the scheme being permanently extended across Scotland.