Sex offenders more likely to be re-housed in the north of England

Lower property prices blamed for imbalance.

The regions with the most sex offenders in England and Wales relative to their population are all in the north of England, with some housing more than DOUBLE the number present in other areas.

The biggest density of sex offenders is in the north east. And while the density of offenders is linked in some small part to the crime rate in the north east, experts say it isn’t enough to account for the concerning cluster.

Instead they claim it is down to the fact low cost housing in and around Teesside means it is easier to set up halfway homes and accommodation for offenders.

Mick Gradwell, a former detective superintendent with Lancashire police, says cheaper house prices in these areas, where the average property costs as little as £79,000, mean it is far easier for temporary accommodation to be established.

He said: “A lot of these people are rehoused where property is cheaper and it is easier to hide these hostels.”

The figures come from the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements, a Ministry of Justice scheme which requires violent and sexual offenders to be monitored on their release from prison, in each of the 42 criminal justice areas in England and Wales.

Our analysis reveals massive discrepancies between the number of sex offenders housed in different regions, compared with the size of their population.

The latest figures, for 2013/14, show Teesside and Humberside both house the most sex offenders with 127 per 100,000 people.

Lancashire has the third most, with 122, followed by West Yorkshire which has 110, and Greater Manchester was fifth with 107, while Derbyshire also had 107 putting them all way above the current national average of 92.

By contrast Surrey has just 55 sex beasts per 100,000 people, Thames Valley has 61 and Hertfordshire has 63, which are all below the national average from eight years ago, while Essex has 71 and Warwickshire has 72.

Mr Gradwell said the figures highlight the “stresses and strains” the authorities including police, probation and councils face monitoring people in these “hotspots”. He added: “In the north, the figures are showing there are quite a number of hotspots for category one sex offenders.

“It is not something the police want to publicise because if you start highlighting a particular area as having a high number of people living there, it creates problems.”

Overall the number of registered sex offenders in the community has increased by 24% from 37,225 in 2010/11 to 46,102 in 2013/14.

But the number of offenders cautioned or convicted for breaches of notification requirements, in which offenders must stay in regular contact with authorities, soared by 38% over the same period.

Dianne Ludlow, of child abuse charity One in Four, said: “The fact that some areas have a higher burden of monitoring and managing would logically result in that population being at higher risk.

“Life will never be risk free but the utmost should be done to minimise it.”

Child sexual abuse survivor Chris Wittwer last night slammed the level of scrutiny offenders are subject to once they are placed in communities.

He set up a website to collate a database of convicted paedophiles after becoming concerned they were not being monitored closely enough when they leave prison.

He says it has now had more than 26 million hits, and countless victims have contacted him to say they have reported abuse, after spotting their tormentor on his site.

He said: “Once they are released from prison they might have their computer checked now and again and once a week they might go in and speak to a probation officer.

“But without real monitoring we believe most offenders will go on to commit these crimes again.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Sex offenders on licence are subject to a strict set of conditions, including exclusion zones, non-contact orders and sex offender treatment programmes, as well as being subject to the sex offenders’ register. If they fail to comply, they can be recalled to prison.

“We have tough measures to manage sex offenders in the community, and these work to prevent reoffending and protect the public.”

A spokesman for the National Police Chiefs’ Council said: “The UK has some of the most robust procedures in the world for managing registered sexual offenders (RSOs). There are

several notification requirements RSOs must fulfil and they are subject to various restrictions through licence conditions and other orders.

“Each force has officers and staff trained in sexual offender management and an extremely low rate of reoffending by those subject to Mappa shows that the measures in place are effective.

“In the last five years the number of RSOs has risen by an average of 8% per year.

“This is largely due to police working more proactively to investigate such crimes, including a sharp rise in reports of historic abuse and investigations into internet child abuse.”