Sex menace to county youngsters revealed by Sarah’s Law
Law was brought in after death of eight year old
A SCHEME which allows parents and carers to ask police if people who have access to their children are a possible danger has uncovered seven potential abusers this year.
The child sex offender disclosure scheme – popularly known as Sarah’s Law – allows parents, guardians or other full-time carers to approach police if they have concerns about someone who has close, unsupervised contact with children.
Sara Payne, whose eightyear-old daughter, Sarah, was killed by convicted paedophile Roy Whiting in 2000, led a campaign calling for the law.
In the past year, Leicestershire Police has received applications for background infor- mation on 44 individuals.
In seven cases, the force responded that the subject of the inquiry had a conviction for a sexual offence against children or detectives believed there was a risk to a child because of other offences on their records, such as a child neglect conviction.
The number of disclosures made this year is broadly in line with previous years since the scheme was introduced in October 2010.
Previously police have said applications had been made by women who had concerns about new partners, while others were made by other close family members and foster carers.
Detective Chief Inspector Kenny Henry, the force’s lead on child safeguarding, said: “Sarah’s Law is a very important piece of legislation and aims to protect children.
“We encourage anyone who has child protection concerns to contact us, so that we can investigate those concerns and make disclosures where appropriate.”
Detail of the scheme and of how to apply for a disclosure can be found at:
SEVEN POTENTIAL ABUSERS BROUGHT TO LIGHT BY DISCLOSURE SCHEME