SHOULD PARENTS BE TOLD WHERE PREDATORS LIVE?
Proposals to allow gardaí alert schools and families could send sex offenders ‘under the radar’ and encourage vigilantism say experts
PUBLICISING the names and whereabouts of convicted sex offenders may backfire, TDs were warned yesterday.
Ministers have proposed to allow schools and neighbours to be told the names and addresses of ‘high-risk’ sex offenders.
But the Oireachtas Justice committee yesterday heard such a move could push sex offenders ‘under the radar’ of the authorities.
Fianna Fáil’s Jim O’Callaghan asked experts at the committee if disclosure of sex offenders’ details
could cause them to move off the radar.
Caroline Counihan of Rape Crisis Network Ireland said: ‘The worst possible thing I have always heard, both from probation and gardaí involved in the management of sex offenders, is when they go under radar.
‘That’s when the risk can escalate very, very dramatically and very quickly.
‘That’s why I suppose I am concerned about who is going to get this information and what are they going to do with it? It cannot be misused.’
Ms Counihan, who is the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland’s legal policy director, said: ‘And I really do think there should be some form of penalty in there for misusing the information and... there should be something in there about confidentiality.’
Under the proposal, the information would only be disclosed if the sex offender would likely not be assaulted, intimidated, threatened or have his or her property damaged. It must also not cause public disorder.
The disclosure should be rare and only made to the minimum number of people necessary where there is a risk of reoffending.
The registered offender should initially be informed and the disclosure will not be authorised if the offender ‘agrees to act so that the threat… no longer exists’.
Mr O’Callaghan, who is Fianna Fáil’s justice spokesman said he believes publicising such information is a ‘complicated and complex area’ and urged legislators ‘need to be careful in how we approach it’.
Mr O’Callaghan also said: ‘There is a bigger question for society, which is: What is causing people to engage in sexual offences, sexual attacks?
‘And I suppose this generation of young people are exposed to pornography and the internet and technology to an extent that no previous generation was exposed to.
‘And we do not know the impact, particularly on young men, that the prevalence of pornography and the very submissive way it presents women, is having on the development of their sexuality.
‘I think it is an area that we need to do considerable research into.
‘I welcome the fact the [Justice] Minister has said we are going to have a new Sexual Abuse And Violence in Ireland report in respect of it.’
Vivian Geiran, director of the Probation Service, told the committee that sex offenders are ‘definitely’ a bigger threat to the public when they are ‘underground’.
He said it was a ‘serious issue that we face… on a regular basis’ and he said he was concerned that offenders would go ‘underground’ if featured in the media upon release from prison.
Mr Geiran also told the Dáil committee: ‘As far as driving the people underground is concerned, that’s a serious issue that we face on a regular basis, where offenders are coming out, for example, from prison under our supervision are sometimes followed from the prison to our office by sections of the media and so on... and then subsequently can have their location outed, and as a result may go underground.
‘That would certainly be a difficulty and doesn’t help in any way the rehabilitation process.’
A spokeswoman for Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan last night said: ‘Disclosure would only be made in the interests of protection of the public or a member of the public.’
She said the Bill is still being drafted and that all views will be considered and debated when it comes before the Dáil.
The Bill also includes a provision to allow gardaí to publish information about the sex offenders if they breach their notification requirements, and their location or whereabouts subsequently become unknown.
Comment – Page 14 emmajane.hade@dailymail.ie
‘Risk escalates dramatically’ ‘Doesn’t help in rehabilitation’