Offenders Registry

["Jim M" <petenotped@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I was browsing around trying to see if there's any information on the 
internet about the UK Sex Offenders Registry.  I wanted to see if you could 
look up people and, if Pete was on it, what it said about him.  I ran across 
the following article, and it seems like Pete's name wouldn't have even been 
made known to the public if he weren't a celebrity.  I somehow doubt his is 
an "extreme case."

Jim M

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/cgi-bin/uk/printer_friendly.cgi?id=2073167

There are no plans to put the UK's sex offenders registry online,
according to a Home Office spokesman. Currently, the registry is held
only by the police force in the area a known paedophile lives and it is
left to their discretion how much information to disclose to the public.
"In extreme cases the police may decide to notify the public. It depends
on their risk assessment," the spokesman said. He believes the vigilante
threat posed by releasing information about paedophiles to the general
public would outweigh the benefits.

David Kerr, chief executive of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) agrees
that putting the sex offenders' registry on the Net raises problems. "We
would have concerns about the balance between protecting kids and the
right to individual freedom," he said.

ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) spokesman on child protection
Chief Constable Tony Butler believes publishing sex offenders whereabouts
on the Net would be a retrograde step. "We are trying to manage sex
offenders in the community. To publish on the Internet would cause
unnecessary fear and alarm in the community," he said.

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