AGSI rejects proposal to name sex offenders

A proposal to grant members of the public access to the sex offenders' register has been rejected by the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors.

Delegates at the association's annual conference in Cork were told it would lead to vigilantism and "drunken lynch law", which the gardaí would then have to address.

Mr Séamus Whelan, an officer in the Wexford/Wicklow district, proposed a motion calling on the AGSI national executive to lobby the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, to allow the public access to information relating to the presence of paedophiles and other sex offenders in their community.

However, he said he did not favour Ireland using the sex offenders' register in the same way as in the US, where information on sex offenders is made public and is even posted on websites by 37 states.

"The common good is served in the right to know of teachers, playgroup workers, youth club leaders, sports club mentors and others to have knowledge of this category of person in their midst," he said.

At present the gardaí are not authorised to reveal details of the register. In the future if it was decided the public should be told, the information could be passed on by health boards or the courts service and not just An Garda Síochána.

There had been overwhelming public support for the move in recent opinion polls in Britain, where up to 97 per cent of respondents in one survey agreed details of the UK register should be revealed if it benefited the wider community.

Mayo delegate, Mr Mick Doyle, said he was not advocating the publication of lists and photographs of offenders. He favoured a more controlled method of access for the public.

"If a person has a genuine concern and goes to a garda station they should be told if there is a person with a conviction for paedophilia living next door to them.

"The public have a right to know."

However, most other speakers addressing the closing session of the three-day conference were against the publication of the register, in any circumstances.

Mr Gerry Lovett, an officer from the central detective and special detective units, said he was concerned that some vigilante attacks witnessed in the UK and US would be repeated here.

During one such attack in Newport in Wales a paediatrician was forced to move house when she was attacked by people who misunderstood the nameplate on her door and thought she was a paedophile.

Mr Joe Keane, a delegate from Dublin metropolitan area east, said publication of details on the register brought with it too many areas of concern. If people were given information on their neighbours' criminal records it would set a "dangerous precedent".

Mr Walter Kilcullen, from Dublin metropolitan area south central, said he and his colleagues had first hand experience of vigilante attacks. They amount to "lynch law where innocent people were often the victims".