322 UK sex offenders 'missing'

2007-01-29 09:07

London - Some 322 convicted sex offenders are missing across Britain, police said on Sunday, in an admission that is likely to heap fresh misery on interior minister John Reid and his department.

The figure was revealed in response to a freedom of information request to all 50 police forces in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland from the News of the World newspaper.

Freed sex offenders, including rapists and paedophiles, are supposed to disclose their current whereabouts to police and probation services but many had only given vague addresses to avoid being traced, the weekly claimed.

One paedophile who breached conditions of the sex offenders register was said to have given his address as "woods" after moving from a "tent near Guildford leisure centre" in Surrey, south-east England.

In London, the Metropolitan Police said it had lost track of 88 sex offenders - the highest number of any force.

Two police forces - both in Wales - did not give a figure while all refused to give any details of the offenders themselves or how long they had been missing.

Prisons nearly full

Home secretary John Reid is under pressure after a number of serious offenders were spared jail because prisons in England and Wales are at near-capacity.

His department has also admitted failing to enforce overseas travel bans on drug traffickers and not updating criminal records of thousands of Britons convicted abroad.

Reid's predecessor was sacked last year after hundreds of convicted foreign nationals were not deported after serving their sentences and went missing. Some re-offended.

Opposition parties and child protection groups said it was unacceptable for sex offenders to go missing.

But the home office said in a statement: "The sex offenders register is a powerful operational tool for managing sex offenders in the community with a compliance rate of 97% for those subject to its requirements."

- AFP