Sex offenders face crackdown

Only one in thirteen rape victims secures a conviction

The most radical overhaul of sex offence laws for more than a century. Government proposals are expected to include measures to protect children more effectively from the attentions of paedophiles.

The children's charity, the NSPCC, has been involved in consultation over the new legislation. Breakfast spoke to their head of policy and public affairs, Liz Atkins. she said:

There will be an update to incest laws so it will not only just mean blood relatives but also people in positions of trust i.e. foster parents. Changes will also include offences committed abroad...and we welcome the toughening of laws. Certain children are very vulnerable, they take things at face value, i.e. in chat rooms they will readily accept the credentials of those they are talking to.

We also ask how far would these government proposals go in giving rape survivors and the authorities real power to prosecute attackers? We talked to Lynne Harne from the Rape Crisis Federation.

Click here to watch our interview with Jill Saward

Jill Saward, a rape survivor also spoke on our programme. She said:

It is about time something is done, it is long overdue...current laws are inadequate. There are so many instances of rape and we can't get those who commit rape convicted. We need consent forms, and they should be printed on condom packets, we have a situation now where there's more time spent in choosing which knickers to buy than in dropping them.

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Among the new measures will be increased monitoring of offenders once they have been released from prison.

The parents of murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne raised the profile of the issue last year.

Her death prompted new calls for the public to be allowed to know where sex offenders are living.

Although this will not happen, the changes would mean all 18,500 people on the Sex Offenders Register being obliged to re-register their details with the police annually, instead of every five years as at present.

Failing to comply with that requirement could also carry a five-year jail term.

Mr Blunkett has promised "to clamp down on the evil around us".

New technology would be used to check the location of convicted paedophiles, he said.

Victorian policies

The measures are being trailed as helping to give the UK the "toughest child protection laws" anywhere in the world.

BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said the Home Office felt the changes were "overdue" and replaced what were often Victorian-style policies.

He said: "Among the most significant proposals is a new criminal offence of 'grooming' to enable police to arrest adults who befriend children with the intention of abusing them."

Blunkett: reform is badly needed

This will involve contact between paedophiles and children on the internet.

One of the most controversial proposals will be an amendment to the law on rape.

This is intended to make it easier for the courts to determine whether the victim has consented.

It is aimed at getting up conviction rates for rape - which currently run at one in thirteen.

Under the reported plans, men accused of date rape would not be able to claim as a defence that they genuinely believed their partner wanted to have sex.

A Home Office report in 2000 recommended dropping the "honest belief" defence in certain cases.

Gay sex in public is also likely to be decriminalised in cases where those taking part had no reason to think a third person would see them or be distressed by their activities.