Pilot schemes start on Monday 15 September in four police areas in Britain - Hampshire, Cleveland, Warwickshire and Cambridgeshire - allowing parents and carers to seek details of the background of friends, neighbours and relatives who have unsupervised access to their children.
And single mothers can also discover if a new boyfriend is a convicted paedophile.
All very laudable but here is where the problem occurs. Sara Payne whose daughter was murdered by a paedophile explains: “Say you have a new babysitter you want to be sure about. You can get peace of mind by going to a police station and registering your application to see if there’s anything worrying in his or her background.“You will be vetted and have to sign an affidavit that you will use the information responsibly."
You will "sign an affidavit that you will use the information responsibly" and there's the rub.
Firstly, there is always the possibility of a mistake in the information held by the police. The last time the News of the World published a list of paedophiles some poor sod who isn't sexually interested in children got his head kicked in because he had a similar name to a paedophile.
Secondly, how can the police be sure that the information will be used "responsibly"? How can they know that the details will not be passed on to vigilantes?
Before anyone accuses me of being soft on paedophiles, I know of one way that would stop any paedophile abusing another child - lock them away FOR LIFE.
