Sex predators missing key therapy due to staff crisis

Almost 80 offenders going without treatment to restrict urges

DOZENS of dangerous sex offenders are going without vital therapy because of a staffing crisis, the Scottish Daily Mail can reveal.

Nearly 80 medium-to-high risk predators and paedophiles are currently free to roam the streets despite going without the treatment they need to rein in their perverted urges.

Cash-strapped local authorities across the country cannot cope with demand for the Moving Forward: Making Changes (MFMC) programme, which attempts to defuse the risk posed to society.

Instead, volatile sex offenders in Glasgow, Ayrshire, Fife and Tayside are waiting for up to six months for spaces on the course to become available. Meanwhile, in Highland, the whole scheme has ground to a halt after two staff members left and have still to be replaced.

Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Douglas Ross said: ‘If we are going to allow sex offenders back into our society we need to ensure that they do not pose a threat and that they are receiving the right support.

‘This is clearly not happening, and it raises questions about whether they should be released if adequate support is not in place.’

MFMC was devised to treat registered sex offenders (RSOs) who present ‘a significant risk’ of striking again. Specially trained social workers help them understand what triggers their criminal behaviour so they can avoid or cope with those situations.

More than 500 RSOs – around one in eight of those in the community – are on the course but there aren’t enough social workers to run it. There are five sex offenders in a queue in Fife; five in Taynow side – a partnership taking in Perth and Kinross, Dundee and Angus; eight across the Ayrshire councils and two in Glasgow.

Staff departures in Highland mean 48 RSOs have had their treatment interrupted while a further ten on the waiting list won’t be admitted to the scheme until at least the end of this year.

South Lanarkshire and Orkney admitted they have offenders without a place on the course but refused to say how many.

In the wake of the 2004 murder of eight-year-old Mark Cummings in Glasgow by convicted paedophile Stuart Leggate, MSPs on Holyrood’s justice 2 sub-committee called on ministers to ‘ensure there are sufficient resources made available to...community-based services to enable the development and delivery’ of therapy programmes.

Last night, Mark’s mother, Margaret-Ann Cummings, said: ‘It’s been ten years since the Scottish Government promised to fund these programmes properly to help prevent another family going through what we’ve been through and it still hasn’t lived up to its word. Meanwhile, sex offender reconviction rates are rising. Do they not see the link? ‘

Highland Council admitted its two MFMC social workers have left at short notice. A spokesman said: ‘The circumstances could not have been foreseen and steps have been taken to ensure continuity of service whilst steps are put in place to deliver MFMC.’

Fife Council said it is carrying out other work with sex offenders until space becomes available on the course.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The monitoring of sex offenders is more robust than ever before, with greater police powers and a range of measures for high risk offenders.’

‘Ensure they do not pose a threat’