The Way Forward?

MIKE and Sara Payne, parents of murdered schoolgirl Sarah, have given their support to a radical, new way of "managing" sex offenders in the community.

While the couple, whose daughter was kidnapped and killed by Roy Whiting, are campaigning for "Sarah s Law", to allow parents to know details of sex offenders living nearby, they have also shown interest in a wholly different approach.

Circles of Support is a Canadian initiative giving the community a crucial role in supervising people with convictions for a wide range of sex crimes.

It strikes for the middle ground between two extremes: a register of offenders accessible only to the police and managed by "professionals"; or an open register, leading to attacks by vigilantes, potentially on innocent people, and driving offenders underground.

Detective Inspector Paul Williams, who is responsible for the sex offenders register in Highdown police division, hopes to launch Circles of Support in this part of West Sussex.

"The idea is to put around an individual offender half a dozen other people who are recruited from the community and trained by agencies to provide support for that sex offender, but also to hold them accountable for their actions.

"Every day one of them makes contact with him, perhaps a phone call, going shopping with him or taking him to the place where he is being given treatment for his offending. They befriend him, teach him how to relate to adults.

"He opens his heart to them, and they need to know him inside out. He tells them what he has done, his background, everything. If he has a drink problem, they might notice alcohol on his breath.

"For me, managing and monitoring sex offenders, this would be of great benefit. I could update my computer records daily, if he changes his car, his address or even his appearance, by, say, growing a beard.

"If his mother dies, or he loses his job, or his marriage breaks down, that is a time of stress and it flags up that he is at a greater risk of offending, so we can intervene, perhaps through offering him counselling, or perhaps by surveillance."

For more reaction to the Whiting trial, see the Gazette, December 21.