A TERRIBLE DILEMA

The issue of paedophiles in the community has raised its ugly head today with the trial in certain areas of a “Megans Law”, a system that allows parents access to information about child sex offenders living in their area. The BBC’s website has described the position as such;

“The trial would not be until May at the earliest. Under the pilot schemes, parents will have the right to find out if there are any paedophiles living in their neighbourhood although their names and addresses will not be revealed. Single mothers will also be allowed to find out if a new partner is on the sex offenders' register. The pilot is based on Megan's Law in the US, named after Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old who was murdered in the US by a neighbour who was a convicted sex offender.”

To ruin a child’s life at such a young age is an action which is totally unacceptable to any modern society, and as such paedophiles are the most heinous of criminals. The issue of a “Megans Law” however, causes me great concerns. Publicity will drive these criminals underground and whilst their presence will be known in a certain constituency, it will not be publicized in neighbouring areas, thereby pushing the problem else where. Martin Narey of Barnardos calls for closer supervision in preference to problematic public knowledge. This also has issues in that the establishment of centres for paedophiles to congregate re monitoring purposes etc allows the establishment of networks and contact points.

Clearly, this is a very difficult area to arrive at a fail safe procedure for control. However, paedophiles do not see anything wrong with what they have done and remain like alcoholics in that they are never “cured”. As such they are always likely to re offend. As a nation we are faced with a very simple dilemma; either we jail offenders for life or we face the danger that the most at risk section of society, children, will always be under threat. In the present political climate, no leader has the political will or determination to implement such a policy. Until then, the issue of paedophiles living within communities will not go away.

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