World Vision Fears for Children in Legal Loophole

World Vision has highlighted a legal loophole in British law that could allow hundreds of sex offenders to travel outside the UK to child abuse hotspots without authorities being alerted.

|TOP|In a Premier Radio interview with Phillipa Lei, Policy Advisor on Child Rights at World Vision, an alarming loophole in the British legal system was revealed that allows paedophiles and sex offenders to go abroad unchecked by authorities.

Current law requires paedophiles and sex offenders to register with a local police station whenever they travel within the UK. There is as yet, however, no requirement on them to alert authorities if they go abroad.

In 2003 the law stated simply that registered sex offenders could travel overseas for eight days without alerting the authorities.

Christian aid agency World Vision has worked to reduce that period to three days, but the charity is still concerned about the opportunity this allows sex offenders to commit crimes abroad.

Lei warned that the traditional hotspots for English men offending abroad could change from Asia to Eastern Europe.

|AD|He said, "We see this trend toward cheap air flights and the ability to travel without telling anyone. We're very concerned with increase in travel to Eastern Europe; people can quite easily get there within three days. An offender can abuse a child and get back to the UK without anyone knowing."

"After the Gary Glitter incident, the Home Office sent out a consultation letter asking charities like ourselves and ex-pats what we thought should be done to tighten up the legislation as regards to travelling sex offenders," Lei commented.

"One of the key things they were asking about was whether we thought this three day loophole should be closed. The feeling among ourselves was that this should be the case."

She concluded, "If sex offenders don't register abroad, the UK authorities can't alert the country to which they are travelling, so no preventative measures can be put in place to make sure these people don't offend against children in those countries."