Focus on 'Sarah's Law'

The problem of how to protect children from paedophiles continues to occupy most of this morning's papers.

For the first time in three weeks, there are no pictures in the News of the World of convicted child sex offenders.

The paper has suspended its policy of identifying paedophiles, but rejects suggestions that it has backed down in the face of a welter of criticism.

Its leading article says the decision was taken only because those in authority have agreed to back the paper's campaign for the introduction of "Sarah's Law", named in memory of the murdered schoolgirl, Sarah Payne.

The campaign has two main objectives - that parents should have controlled access to information about paedophiles, and that judges should be able to give dangerous offenders unlimited sentences.

The paper says its aim remains unchanged - that there should be "no hiding place" for child sex offenders.

Hysteria

But there is disagreement about the merits of Sarah's Law.

The Independent on Sunday says a string of experts in the child protection field regard the measure as "unworkable", leading to mob violence, and reducing the number of abusers complying with the rules of the sex offenders register.

It accuses the News of the World and its supporters of bringing hysteria to the issue, and describes the hope expressed by a senior executive that Sarah's Law will be on the statute book by the end of this year as "bordering on the fantastic".

The paper observes that "democracy rarely moves as hastily as a tabloid newspaper editor".

The Sunday Mirror also enters the fray. It charges the News of the World with encouraging a lynch mob, who were "just as likely to target an innocent citizen as a child molester".

The paper believes children would enjoy greater protection if anyone who committed a second serious sex offence was locked up for life with no chance of release.

The child murderers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, whose crimes shocked Britain more than 30 years ago, are still in the news.

Laptop

The Mail on Sunday carries details of what it calls the "unparalleled luxury" enjoyed by Hindley inside Highpoint Prison in Suffolk.

Hindley apparently has 24-hour access to a television and laptop computer, sleeps on an orthopaedic bed bought by well-wishers, and has two cells to herself.

The paper says she and Brady have been carrying on a secret correspondence - a revelation greeted by "fury" from the families of Hindley's victims.

The crew of a crippled Royal Navy submarine ran up a bill of more than £350,000 by staying in five-star hotels while the vessel waited to be repaired, according to the Sunday Express.

HMS Tireless is still docked in Gibraltar, nearly three months after the cooling system for its nuclear reactor broke down.

The delay is reported to have incensed local residents, who are said to be "furious" about the potential danger posed by the repairs.

Finally, the Sunday Telegraph reports on the plight facing Britain's belly dancers.

They are worried by the claims that Saddam Hussein has been training female agents in the guise of exotic performers, to report on - and eliminate - Iraqi dissidents abroad.

Belly dancers tell the paper that Saddam's plan will undermine their business, as customers could be scared off by the prospect of being in the same room as highly-trained assassins.