AS a parent with two young children, I was horrified by the terrible murder of Sarah Payne. It's every parent's nightmare.

Yet I'm deeply concerned by the News of the World campaign to disclose the identities of paedophiles released into the community. I believe such a practice will make our children less safe rather than more.

In America where Megan's law exists and which the News of the World wants here, the police know only the whereabouts of 80 per cent of released paedophiles compared with 97 per cent in Britain. This is for the simple reason that if you publicly disclose identities you force these people to go on the run, when it is more difficult to track them and keep them under supervision.

So, what can we do? The government has done much in the last three years. The sex offenders register has been tightened and the penalty for non-compliance increased to five years imprisonment.

Supervision after release has been increased to ten years, and sex offender orders have been introduced which give police the powers to stop known sex offenders moving round the country.

But more is needed.

Local people should be represented on area protection panels. There should be indefinite sentencing so that a paedophile is not released until they convince a court that they no longer threaten children. And I believe paedophiles that are released should be permanently tagged. Such abominable crimes merit the curtailment of civil liberties in this way.

But what we don't need are national newspapers running ill-considered campaigns, where their real motivation is populist sensationalism to sell papers rather than the safety of our children.

December 21, 2001 11:52