Home
Office considers tracking sex offenders, Newsnight reveals
The
Home Office is considering using tracking technology to monitor
sex offenders, BBC Newsnight has learnt.
As
public pressure mounts on the Government to find new ways of dealing
with child abusers, a report for the programme revealed that ministers
are considering the possibility of using technology to electronically
track convicted child abusers every minute of the day.
Newsnight
gained exclusive access to one of a number of satellite tracking
systems being considered by the Home Office Electronic Monitoring
Unit, which could follow paedophiles wherever they go.
The
Sky Guardian system is the culmination of years of work by Shy Keenan,
a victim of child sex abuse.
Speaking
to the programme she said: "I spoke to one of the child molesters.
I asked him straight, 'what kind of treatment would stop you?',
and his response to me was, 'I like molesting children, it's great.
I love doing it. The only thing that would actually stop me would
be if you cellotaped a policeman and a probation officer to my arse'.
"And
as blunt and straight as that was, it sat with me for ages."
The
Sky Guardian system Keenan created with Clive Crosby and the satellite
tracking company Tracker involves a tag attached to the offender's
ankle and a mobile phone that alarms if he fails to carry it with
him.
He
can be tracked 24 hours a day via a computer at a monitoring centre
and certain areas like schools or playgrounds can be 'geo-fenced'.
If
the offender approaches these areas he can be contacted directly
by a probation or police office on an automatic voice channel on
the phone.
The
system is one of three currently being considered by the Home Office,
but some children's charities say even if the technology is proven,
there are grave concerns about how it might be used.
Donald
Findlater, deputy director of leading child protection charity,
the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, said: "How many of the 18,000
registered sex offenders do we want to tag and track?
"And
when we do these things, who are we kidding that we're actually
protecting children? Most children don't tell.
"A
man could be holding his mobile phone in one hand and sexually abusing
with the other. If that child doesn't tell, no one's going to know
that he's done that.
"We're
chasing answers that in their right application could be helpful
but in the majority of cases just do not work."
The
Home Office told Newsnight it is actively looking at the possibilities
of using tracking technology to monitor sex offenders.
It
denied reports that pilots would begin within the next few months.
A Home
Office spokesman said: "We're discussing it. We're committed
to exploring the possibilities."
Notes
to Editors
The
full report was broadcast on Newsnight on Monday 24 February 2003,
BBC TWO, 10.30pm.
If
any of this material is used BBC Newsnight must be credited.
All the
BBC's digital services are now available on Freeview,
the new free-to-view digital terrestrial television service, as well
as on satellite and cable.
Freeview
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- as well as six BBC radio networks.
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