This Is Guernsey

A LAW allowing limited disclosure of a sex offender’s details is ‘months rather than years’ away, according to Home minister Geoff Mahy.

But islanders expecting a full register of such offenders will be disappointed.

Deputy Mahy revealed that the department would observe closely a trial to be launched in the summer by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith in four English police regions. People with a direct interest in the welfare of a child will be able to request information about a person who has unsupervised access to that child. Each request will be considered by police and the probation service.

If the measure was put into practice in Guernsey, a mother could, for instance, approach police to find out if a new partner had a history of sex crimes.

Deputy Mahy said the issue was top priority and that reforms to the law were being brought about as soon as possible.

‘People should not be complacent since a high number of such incidents are brought about by someone the victim knows,’ said Deputy Mahy.

‘Parents have to be careful. But we have to be careful, especially in a small society like Guernsey.’

Deputy Mahy said a move towards ‘Megan’s Law’, which in the United States permits sex offenders’ names to be revealed, would be dangerous.

‘People with the same name, or indeed the offender’s relatives, can be wrongfully targeted, which in some cases has resulted in deaths,’ he said. ‘There is always a middle ground in these situations.’

However, a local businesswoman has promised to keep up pressure with her petition to force the disclosure of convicted sex offenders.

Hairdresser Maria Crawford, who started it when paedophile James Brehaut was released from jail last year, said that she was sickened to hear of body parts having been found beneath former Jersey children’s home Haut de la Garenne and that it had inspired her to continue.

‘I was completely shocked when I heard what had happened in Jersey, but judging by what people have been saying about abuse being covered up in the Channel Islands I cannot say I am surprised,’ said Miss Crawford.

‘I feel that there has been an awful lot covered up – people who hadn’t been believed when they had come forward before,’ she said.

‘And of course, people find it hard to talk about these things. They hide away because they are embarrassed.’