Police: Sarah's law won't work

Roy Whiting would never have been caught so fast and red-handed with the forensic evidence which convicted him if Sarah's Law had been in place, senior police officers believe.

The nationwide bandwagon, given a major boost by the heartfelt plea from Sarah Payne's mother after Whiting was jailed for life has disturbed detectives on the case.

Supporters of Sarah's Law want the right for residents to have instant access to a register of sex offenders who move into their neighbourhood.

Police are reluctant to speak out in public on policy matters which are strictly for politicians, but privately they have deep reservations.

Det Supt Jeremy Paine, head of Sussex CID, said that in the US, Megan's Law - like Sarah named after a victim of a convicted paedophile - had failed to produce the effect campaigners had hoped.

He went on: "In the US where the equivalent of Sarah's Law is in place, there is no evidence that it made any difference to recidivism or to the parents and grandparents of children, but there is evidence that it might have driven sex offenders underground.

"In Sussex, 98 per cent of convicted paedophiles have registered on the sex offenders list which means that we know where they are. It is that very fact which allowed us to go to Roy Whiting so quickly and to gather evidence."

He added: "Sarah's Law is a matter for national debate and for the Home Office to consider. It is not for me to say what should happen nationally but as far as I am aware in Sussex, there is no evidence that it would have helped in this case in the way of the overall management of sex offenders."

Whiting, 42, was unanimously convicted at Lewes Crown Court of the kidnap and murder of eight-year-old Sarah in July last year.

Three years ago, he was released after serving only two and a half years for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a young girl. But he had to sign the sex offenders register and keep police constantly informed of his home address.

Hours after Sarah disappeared from the country lane at Kingston Gorse, near Littlehampton, detectives had drawn up a list of the six most likely sex offenders in the county who could have kidnapped her - and Whiting was top of the list.

Within 24 hours of the abduction, they were hammering on Whiting's front door and arrested him that night as he tried to drive off in the white van which was later found to contain a treasure trove of forensic evidence, including the one billion to one link of Sarah's hair on his red sweatshirt.

Outside court, Sarah's mother said on live television: "You know what I want. Sarah's Law."

She added: "Please make sure that this stops happening time and time again. People are being let out of prison when everybody concerned knows that this is going to happen again."

However when the idea of Sarah's Law was first raised, supported by a national Sunday newspaper which printed the names and addresses of people they described as convicted paedophiles, there was rioting outside a number of homes of the suspected child molesters.

Nevertheless, Det Supt Paine acknowledges that the law as it stands leaves the police in a powerless position once the sex offender has served his prison sentence.

He said: "We had been very concerned about Whiting since his release having looked at the circumstances of his previous offence, but as a registered sex offender, we knew very quickly where he was living.

"We can only work within the law and minimise the risk. The current law forces them to tell us where they live and that is the only thing it does."

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