POLICE Scotland has lost track of 12 sex offenders who are among nearly 500 missing across the UK, according to a report.
The missing include rapists and paedophiles, with some having disappeared more than a decade ago, says a Sky News investigation.
Police Scotland said 12 registered sex offenders were wanted, all of whom are believed to be out of the UK.
Figures released by 41 police forces show the number of convicted sex offenders whose whereabouts are unknown is 485, a jump of more than 20 per cent in the last three years.
Registered sex offenders must inform police of their addresses and are subject to monitoring by authorities who manage certain sexual and violent criminals living in communities. Police did not name the missing sex offenders, citing the Data Protection Act.
Alex Mayes, from charity Victim Support, said the figures were potentially alarming to victims and could undermine public confidence in the criminal justice system.
He said: “To ensure the safety and well-being of survivors of sexual offences, as well as local communities, it is vital that the police strictly monitor sex offenders.”
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “The UK has some of the toughest powers in the world to deal with registered sex offenders and we are committed to ensuring that the system is as robust as it can be.
“We have significantly strengthened the system of reporting that sex offenders are subject to, and a range of civil orders have given police more powers to manage their behaviour.
“When a registered sex offender goes missing, their details are recorded on national and international systems and the police will actively seek out further information and intelligence to locate them.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel