[guardian.co.tt – 2/5/19] At least one Independent Senator is not in support of the names of sexual offenders going public. Sophia Chote, SC, said that this has the potential of opening the floodgates for vigilante justice in T&T. Chote made the comment in the Senate on Tuesday during her contribution on the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill to create a sexual offenders registry. She said making the names of sexual offenders public will also stigmatise the name of the convicted person. “So if the T&T Police Service has a list of…
Read MoreCategory: International
Antigua & Barbuda To Implement Sex Offenders’ Registry
[stluciatimes.com – 2/2/19] Antigua Observer:- Residents will soon be alerted when a sex offender moves into their neighborhood. Attorney General and Public Safety Minister Steadroy “Cutie” Benjamin made that disclosure in Parliament this week. Once convicted, the names of all sexual offenders will be placed on a public registry. This news follows the establishment hereof a Sexual Offences Model Court last month. Benjamin, the Parliamentary representative for St. John’s City South, issued a direct warning to the offenders. “Leave the children alone. I am going to make sure that that…
Read MoreNew Zealand: Public vilification a factor in Wellington academic sentencing
[stuff.co.nz – 1/28/19] Convicted sex offender ______ likely received a lesser sentence because of the potential “vilification” he would face, a leading criminal lawyer says. John Miller, who was a former senior law lecturer at Victoria University and previous Wellingtonian of the Year, said the Sentencing Act 2002 set out mitigating and aggravating factors in sentencing offenders, and a number of those factors would have been taken into account. Appearing before Judge Stephen Harrop at Wellington District Court on Friday, ______ was sentenced to eight months of home detention for…
Read MoreAustralian girl, 12, ‘had no idea about pregnancy’ until childbirth at home
[tert.am – 1/26/19] A 12-year-old girl who gave birth at a home in Western Australia could be charged over the pregnancy – along with the baby’s father. Youth Legal Service WA solicitor Sally Dechow said the charges could be brought against the pair as the conception was considered illegal under state law, The West reported. … WA Police believe the baby’s father is a child of similar age to the mother and was 11 at the the time of the pregnancy. Ms Dechow pointed out even though the pair are…
Read MoreSouth Africa: Call for sex offenders’ list to be made public
[www.iol.co.za – 1/24/19] DURBAN – Child rights organisation Save the Children has launched an online petition calling on Police Minister Bheki Cele to make the National Registrar for Sex Offenders (NSRO) public. The NSRO is not available to the general public, but only to those who employ people who work with children or disabled people. The list helps with protection by ensuring the names of sex offenders are registered in order to prevent them from working with children and the disabled. Nicolette Myburgh, the director of social services at Tutela,…
Read MoreKat’s Blog: Blimey, Who Does Australia’s Fact Checking?
Peter Dutton, Minister for Home Affairs in Australia wants to be the white knight riding in to save his constituents from “sex offenders” by proposing a National Public Registry. “Thwarting the exploitation of children is my key priority as Minister for Home Affairs” says Dutton. Fact #1: That’s all well and good, except Australia already has state-based registries with various levels of public accessibility in Victoria, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Even with those state-based registries, there has been a 77% rise in child sex abuse and exploitation of…
Read MoreAUS: Lawyer fears sex offender list would lead to jury bias
[pressreader.com for Courier-Mail, 1/14/19] Veteran criminal lawyer Chris Nyst says a public register for child sex offenders could result in unfair convictions from biased jurors, if they were given easy access to defendant’s criminal history. Read more
Read MoreAUS: Peter Dutton proposes public register of child sex offenders
Child sex offenders could have their names and photos uploaded to a public register in what is being described as the “toughest crackdown on paedophiles” in Australian history. Full Article Related Editorials Why Australia should not have a public register of child sex offenders Sex offender registries don’t prevent re-offending (and vigilante justice is real)
Read MorePhilippines: BI bars 145 convicted sex offenders to PH
The Bureau of Immigration barred 145 foreigners convicted of sex crimes in their home countries from January to November of the 2018. BI Port Operations Division Chief Grifton Medina said the number of registered sex offenders denied entry is slightly lower than the 165 sex convicts intercepted in the same period of 2017. Full Article
Read MoreIsraeli Sex Offenders Are No Longer Allowed to Change Name
[haaretz.com – 1/1/19] The Knesset on Monday passed into law a bill that prohibits people convicted of sex crimes from changing their name. “The law came about as a response to complaints by women who were shocked to learn they had been in a relationship with convicted sex offenders in the past,” said Meretz MK Michal Rozin, who drafted the law. “This had been hidden from them since the men had changed their names. We’re now letting the public and the victims protect themselves from people convicted of sex crimes.”…
Read MoreIreland: Gunman shoots at wrong house in Dublin ‘after thinking sex offender lived there’
[thejournal.ie – 10/14/18] AN INNOCENT FAMILY was lucky to escape injury after a number of shots were fired into their house in Dublin by a shooter who gardaí believe was targeting a convicted sex offender, TheJournal.ie has learned. The case of mistaken identity happened on Tuesday night in Crumlin. Around four shots were fired through the front door of the house at approximately 10pm. There were four people in the house at the time. Nobody sustained any injuries. Gardaí believe the gunman got the wrong home. The family who live…
Read MoreIndia: Sex Offender’s Registry – A Misplaced Danger?
On September 20, the government announced that in order to take a step forward towards ‘women safety’ in the country, it has launched the National Database on Sexual Offenders(NDSO). It would include names of offenders convicted under charges of rape, gang rape, child sexual abuse, and eve teasing (harassment) maintaining details of some 4,40,000 people convicted for the above offences. It will be maintained by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and will include names, addresses, photographs, and fingerprint details of convicts and will not be accessible by public. India joins…
Read MoreIndia gets a sex offenders registry. What’s that?
[indiatoday.in – 9/13/21] India’s new National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO), a resource only law enforcement authorities can access, has 4.4 lakh entries. Who’s in it? The government said Thursday, the day of the launch, that it would “include offenders convicted under charges of rape, gang rape, POCSO and eve teasing”. POCSO stands for Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act. Each entry has the following information: Name, address, photograph and fingerprint details. A graphic tweeted by the Women and Child Development Ministry said it would also include DNA samples,…
Read MoreIndia Likely to Launch Sex Offender Data Base Next Month
[sputniknews.com – 8/31/18] The registry is aimed at helping law enforcement agencies to identify repeat offenders while making people aware of those involved in crimes that are sexual in nature, however, human rights activists are concerned the draconian step might do more harm than good. New Delhi (Sputnik) — With demands to ensure justice for sex offense victims growing louder every passing day, the government of India has decided to adopt a sex offender database. The database would store the profile and personal details of convicted offenders and also those…
Read MoreBermuda: Do not make sex offender registry public
[royalgazette.com – 8/23/18] Government expert: Seb Henagulph, a consultant at the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute and Westgate Correctional Facility A forensic psychiatrist said there was no clear evidence to show that public sex offender registries result in a reduction in the reoffending rate — and that they could even increase the risk of further crimes. Seb Henagulph, a consultant at the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute and Westgate Correctional Facility, said research showed only about 12 per cent of sex offenders go on to commit a second similar offence. He added the figure…
Read MoreEngland: York trainspotter wrongly branded sex offender on Facebook
[bbc.com – 8/10/18] A woman who branded a trainspotter as a sex offender in a Facebook post is being investigated by police. The man, who has learning disabilities, was seen using binoculars in bushes near York railway station on Tuesday. The woman reported him to police who established he was a keen trainspotter. Police said she later uploaded a picture of the man on to Facebook and “wrongly branded him a sex offender”. They have launched a malicious communication investigation. Yorkshire breaking news: Nine-year-old victim of seaside rock fall named;…
Read MoreAustralia: _____loses bid to halt deportation over criminal convictions
[smh.com.au – 8/7/18] A middle-aged man who has lived in Australia for 50 years has lost a court bid to halt his deportation after his visa was cancelled on character grounds. ______, 57, migrated to Australia from the United Kingdom when he was seven, and until recently lived at Batemans Bay on the NSW south coast where he worked as a tradesman. Read more
Read MoreChina: College pitcher with sex-offender past spurned in China, too
[nypost.com – 8/7/18] Former star collegiate pitcher Luke Heimlich’s status as a sex offender has once again derailed his professional baseball aspirations. The former Oregon State ace had agreed to sign with the Lamigo Monkeys of the Chinese Professional Baseball League on Monday night. But on Tuesday, the league declined to approve the contract, as the CPBL has a no-tolerance policy for players with criminal records. Read more
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