Star comment: Rights of children are at risk
The measure which allows people on the Sex Offenders Register to have their names removed is one of those things which will remain under the radar until somebody who has been "deregistered" seriously offends again.
Then it will be time for lots of running for cover, and lots of I-told-you-sos. And there will, let us not forget, be a victim, or victims.
Since the law was changed in 2012 to allow people to apply to be removed from the register, seven people in the West Mercia police force area have been successful in doing so.
Four were rapists. Five had been convicted of crimes involving children. For parents who will ask whether having these people removed from the register will make their children safer from sex offenders, the answer will be obvious. Getting off this list is the equivalent of being given an invisibility cloak. How can that possibly protect children?
There again, having people on such lists indefinitely is an onerous burden and if, after careful assessment, the judgement in individual cases is that there is no longer any value in it, erasing them is a neutral act, doing no benefit to society but also doing no harm.
Believing that there is indeed no harm takes some crossing of fingers, but these are judgements which are having to be made all the time by professionals in various areas.
What is behind it all is, you will not be surprised to learn, human rights. Nor will you be surprised to learn that the human rights are those of the offenders, not of the victims and potential victims. As there is now no room for argument, those who find this state of affairs troubling can only hope that those set free from the register use the opportunity to build better lives, and through that improvement will never again be a threat.
Yet children are if anything more vulnerable than ever. Again, in the West Mercia area, police have in the last year investigated 74 cases of children sending or sharing explicit or naked pictures of themselves on social media or text messaging services. Some have been as young as 10. This will be the tip of the iceberg, with many other instances which do not reach the notice of parents, let alone police.
These children are putting themselves at risk of being exploited by groomers. As always, when something goes wrong, there will be a big review. It will be far too late for the victims.
