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Identity of 700 child sex offenders revealed to parents under Sarah’s Law (23 December 2013)

Date: 23/12/2013
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Identity of 700 child sex offenders revealed to parents under Sarah’s Law

New data from a charity which works with sex offenders and those who have been abused have suggested that five paedophiles have been identified every week since Sarah’s Law was introduced in 2011.

Sarah’s Law was introduced across England, Wales and Scotland in 2011 in memory of Sarah Payne, who was murdered at the age of eight. After her murder, her mother Sara Payne campaigned for a law to protect children from child abusers and paedophiles – Sarah was murdered by convicted paedophile Roy Whiting in 2000.

The Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme – Sarah’s Law – is similar to the US law which allows publication of addresses where sex offenders live. Sarah’s Law in the UK is less radical and families contact the police for information about men who have contact with their children to make sure they do not have a conviction for child sex offences.

Figures from the charity Lucy Faithfull Foundation have revealed that every week five families are told by police they have come into contact with a child sex offender – and the whereabouts of a total of 708 paedophiles have been brought to parents’ attention since 2011.

The figures show 4,754 applications for information about sex offenders have been made by parents and guardians of children since 2011.

However, critics say that the figures show that only one in seven parental applications has resulted in the identity of a sex offender being revealed – and applications for this information from parents and guardians of children have declined from 1,944 in 2011-12 to 1,106 so far in 2012-13.

Director of Research and Development at the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, Gordon Findlater, says the decline in the number of applications may be because parents are not aware of how Sarah’s Law works.

“We would like to see continued public awareness and publicity – whether by local forces or nationally by the Home Office – so that people know that this means of checking someone out exists.”

The charity sat on the Home Office Board which introduced Sarah’s Law and also set up an online resource to support it. (www.parentsprotect.co.uk)

The NSPCC said that Sarah’s Law is not “a silver bullet” for tackling child sex offenders – and offering the public information about the location of child sex offenders is just one part of the “jigsaw”.

NSPCC lead for tackling sex abuse, Jon Brown said:

“Informing the public of their whereabouts has to be done properly, professionally and judged on a case by case basis.

“Forcing a child abuser underground because of a fear of vigilante attacks won’t make children safer, as the authorities will lose track of them.”

Gordon Findlater of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation said that for parents to have contacted police for information “they must have had some concerns in the first place”.

Mr Findlater added:

“Our concern here would be the other six out of seven people who made an application but did not get a disclosure.

“The police know of only a proportion of offenders – many have not been caught and are not on any police database.”

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