Hundreds of convicted sex offenders have disappeared from the police radar, and several have been missing for more than a decade.
As many as 391 registered sex offenders are wanted by forces in England and Wales because their whereabouts are unknown, figures show.
The Metropolitan police, Britain’s largest force, said that 167 had gone missing in the capital, and one had not been seen for 14 years. In Gloucestershire, one sex offender has been missing since 2000 and another in Northumbria disappeared in May 2002.
Registered sex offenders are required by law to inform police and probation officers of their addresses and are supposed to be monitored by officials working under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements. However, after a Freedom of Information request, 38 of 43 forces admitted that there were registered sex offenders in their areas whose whereabouts were unknown.
By comparison, Police Scotland said none of the 4,775 sex offenders on its register was missing as of February 16.
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Sara Payne, whose daughter, Sarah, was abducted and killed in 2000 by Roy Whiting, a convicted paedophile, said the figures were completely unacceptable and the public was being put at risk. In a statement she said: “It’s time to take some serious pro-active action to bring them back under the police radar.”
Claude Knights, chief executive of the charity Kidscape, which promotes child protection, said that losing track of offenders placed communities in danger. “We know that sex offenders are at their most volatile and dangerous when they are living in chaotic and unsettled circumstances,” she said. “Registered sex offenders who are of no fixed abode are very difficult to assess and monitor . . . The safety of our communities depends on predators being on the appropriate radars. We have a duty of care to potential victims.”
Police forces, which refused to name any of the missing offenders, said the figures could change as arrests were made or new cases come to light.
A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said that London’s “diverse multicultural population” meant that a large percentage of sex offenders were “either known or believed to be living abroad having returned to their country of origin”.
West Midlands police said 39 registered sex offenders were missing, including one since 2006 and nine between 2010 and 2012. Greater Manchester police said 25 registered sex offenders were missing, including one who vanished in September 2005 and three others who went missing in 2006.
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Essex and Sussex police each said 11 registered sex offenders were missing in their areas. Cambridgeshire police said the whereabouts of ten were unknown.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said three sex offenders were “currently wanted”.
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “The UK has some of the toughest powers in the world to deal with sex offenders and we are committed to ensuring the system is as robust as possible. It is for the police to manage offenders in their area, but we work closely with forces to ensure legislation is effective and that officers have all the tools they need.”