Website names and shames child sex offenders

Updated

Australia's first public sex offenders register has gone online, publishing the names and faces of known child sex offenders in Western Australia.

The names and faces of about 50 paedophiles have been published on the State Government website, which is being set up in fulfilment of a 2008 election pledge.

The launch is being closely watched by other states, but there are concerns it will prompt vigilantism and cases of mistaken identity.

The website will provide information on some of the state's most dangerous and repeat child sex offenders, including their photos, names and the suburbs in which they live, although it will not give out specific addresses.

Through the website, parents can also ask police about the criminal history of people who have unsupervised contact with their children.

Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Darryl Noye says he is confident offenders will not be at risk as a result of the site.

"It is leading Australia in providing parents with what would have been confidential information," he said.

"Previously they would not have been aware potentially that someone is a reportable offender if that person has access to their children."

WA Police Minister Liza Harvey says despite the website, parents need to be vigilant.

"What I would like to put out there to parents is that there's no substitute for common sense and for parental supervision," she said.

The founder of Bravehearts, Hetty Johnston, doubts the website will work.

She has told the ABC the best way of keeping children safe is to introduce mandatory sentencing for repeat offenders.

"Western Australia needs two strikes legislation just like everybody else does," she said.

"The human rights of our children have to be placed as a priority over the civil rights of repeat, recidivist sex offenders."

In order to access information, users will have to hand over some of their own, including their licence details.

The photos of offenders will be watermarked with the user's name, so if they are ever posted on Facebook or misused, police will know where they have come from.

But Jonathan Davies from the Australian Lawyers Alliance says it is only a matter of time before the website leads to vigilantism and cases of mistaken identity putting innocent people in harm's way.

"Violence, damage to property, slashed tyres and broken windows. These things will flow and they will have no practical remedy," he said.

The president of WA's Criminal Law Association, Linda Black, is also worried about how some members of the community will deal with the information.

"The concern is that if these people are identified down the track, potentially at a time where they have rehabilitated, whether people will try and track them down in some kind of vigilante action and take their version of the law into their own hands," she said.

"And there is also a risk we have a very real concern about as to whether the release of this kind of information may lead to the misidentification of people as sex offenders."

But Senior Sergeant Noye says vigilantism is never acceptable.

"It then puts the person who takes the matter into their own hands, it puts them at risk as well," he said.

Anyone found guilty of harassing an offender identified on the website faces a jail term of up to 10 years.

The website's launch did not go to plan with a technical glitch initially preventing the general public from accessing the site.

It can be found at www.communityprotection.wa.gov.au

Topics: sexual-offences, law-crime-and-justice, information-and-communication, community-and-society, wa

First posted