Rumours of a sex offender moving to town...

[~clover~]

Last week we had the police out here coz apparently there was a bloke driving around talking to kids & trying to get them into his car. I don't know much about it really, just a description & that it happened. Not sure if anything came of it, but I did hear that it made the news, even though I didn't see it.

Anyway, not sure if its just that the story of that has spread & grown, or if this is true, but a friend told me this morning that apparently a peadophile has moved into town with in a few houses of the school. I really don't know how much truth there is behind this, but I'm a bit worried, as you can imagine.

My kids rarely walk to school, but on occasion I won't have the money for DD1 to catch the bus, so I've let her walk or ride her bike.

We all know that we need to be careful, as we often have reports of wierdo's hanging around the beach & park here during holiday times, coz its such a small town people often think its safer than it really is. Even us locals sometimes don't think & let the kids walk down for some chips or something.
Kids are literally everywhere here with no parental supervision during the hols. Just wandering around in groups. Pretty easy targets iykwim & the creeps know it.

Anyway, is there anyway we can find out if this is true or not? Are we allowed to ask about this sort of stuff? I'm assuming that if anyone like that was here, they'd have the right to their privacy.

[LimeSlice]

Basically, from what I remember, no. Australia does not have a PUBLIC sex offender register and their whereabouts. It is not something they have to tell you and most likely they won't if they can help it.

[ss_storm]

I'm sure the police/legal system/probation officer or someone would keep track of them though and I doubt they would be allowed to live that close to a school. Or maybe I just watch too much tv...

[~clover~]

Thats exactly what I thought.

[Phteven]

There's not much point in asking. I think that you can be sure that there is at least one, maybe more, in your community. They're just as likely to be someone you trust as the creepy guy down the road.

[littlelara]

Frightening stuff.
Why is it not public here like it is in the US?

[Kazmar]

Sadly the scum are protected more then the children Petitions usually get the answer.....

[Jaycee]

I'm fairly sure if they are a registered sex offender they are not able to live within a certain proximity of a school, but that still doesn't help you to know if they are actually in town or not. I agree with Onyx, regardless of whether this particular rumour is true or not, you can almost guarantee there'd be one around somewhere. No where is safe from these idiots these days.

[LimeSlice]

Frightening stuff.
Why is it not public here like it is in the US?

So they can try and live a reasonably normal life and have some protection and aren't getting abused by vigilanties.

Remember that there are more than just peadophiles on the sex offenders register.

[Trillian]

For every Denis Ferguson (for example, meaning the ones you 'know' about), there would probably be 10 that you DON'T know about. I would say that because of what recently happened, that the rumor mill is working triple time atm and that there is no truth in it at all. Don't forget too that rarely do paedophiles snatch kids of the street and abuse them (in which case it would be near impossible to know about them because they could literally be anyone and the chance of a child getting snatched is extremely low) - they are more likely to form a relationship and build trust with the child before abusing them, so she would still be safe riding her bike to school the few times that she does do it. The current law states they cannot live within 400m of a school, so it would be extremely unlikely that if this were a convicted paedophile, that they would be allowed to live only a few houses away from a school

[Kazmar]

Get her to ride with at least one friend That might put your mind at ease

[Jennifer13]

hun, I know it's worrying. But unfortunately sex offenders are just as likely to be someone you know, a relative, family friend, or neighbour, as a stranger who's new to the area. Your best protection is to talk to your DD and make sure she knows clearly and can role play what to do if she's ever approached by anyone in a situation that she is uncomfortable with.

[Jennifer13]

A sex offender register is not going to be any protection against the uncle who visits every month, or the step-father or cousin. The number of children whose abuser is a stranger is very, very low. Apart from the problems you guys have rightly raised with a public list, it also deludes parents into believing their children are 'safe' as long as you know who lives nearby that has been convicted of a 'sex' offence. And it's important to remember that out of the many, many sex crimes (including against children) that occur only a tiny percentage lead to a conviction. So all in all it's a very flawed proposition.

We can protect our children better by talking to them than hiding the issue from them and focussing on public information.