SCOTTISH SEX OFFENDER FAILS TO USE CEOP'S MOST WANTED SITE TO CATCH ABSCONDERS
On the run, or underground or otherwise off the radar, each has been convicted by a court of a sexual offence against a child or adult and has ignored legal requirements to notify police if they move home, stay away for more than a week or travel abroad.This is demanded in the interests of public protection.
However, a website that could offer the best chance of tracking down absconders is not being used, despite approval for Scottish forces to take advantage of it having been granted two years ago.
The CEOP Most Wanted list is part of the online services run by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (CEOP).
One of its major benefits is that it enables forces to spread the search beyond their own boundaries, including outside the UK.
And it is successful.
Of 20 people so far listed on the site, 15 were subsequently located.
Earlier this week, it was announced that the 20th person to be listed on the site had been tracked down.
Welsh paedophile Anthony Mark Bevan was found in Yeovil just two weeks after his details were logged on the CEOP site.
However, of the missing 28 Scottish sex offenders, many of whom are thought to have left the country, none has been listed on the site.
In the two years since Scottish police forces reached agreement to use the resource, this has only happened once.
Tayside Police posted details about Joseph Herbert Millbank on CEOP’s website in July 2008 and he was tracked down to France – again in just a matter of weeks.
The service was acclaimed by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill as a “powerful new tool” for improving child protection, but has remained unused by Scottish forces since.
Mr MacAskill has made it clear that he believes it to be appropriate to publish photographs of missing sex offenders on the internet, and police, the Crown Office and CEOP have a formal agreement, so why is it not happening?
This is different from the argument over whether the public should be alerted to sex offenders living in their communities, even if they are complying with the legal requirements to log their movements with the police.
These 28 have knowingly defaulted on their obligations, which makes their absence clearly worrying and a matter of public concern.
Most recently, Davinder Singh, convicted of a sexual offence against a 15-year-old girl in Falkirk, has gone missing.
Some forces appear to be put off by the procedural hurdles in place before a case can be highlighted on the Most Wanted site.
Yet four of the eight Scottish forces appear not to have even made initial inquiries about using the CEOP tool.
The Crown Office, police forces and CEOP must surely look at this issue again.
The Most Wanted site has proved its worth and it can only be in the public interest for Scottish forces to make the best possible use of it.
