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Chamber

Plenary, 28 Apr 2005

28 Apr 2005 · S2 · Plenary

Item of business

Managing Sex Offenders

Martin, Paul Lab Glasgow Springburn Watch on SPTV

I thank members who have supported my motion and the large number of organisations and individuals outwith Parliament who support the ethos of the motion. I also pay tribute to the courage and determination of Margaret Ann Cummings, who is with us this evening. Tragically, she lost her son, Mark Cummings, who was murdered by Stuart Leggate, a registered child sex offender. I commend her patient and constructive approach to ensuring that lessons are learned from the tragic murder of her son.

I want to highlight several issues. First, I will consider how the housing allocation system deals with registered child sex offenders—I stress "registered". There is a myth that registered sex offenders are carefully managed in the housing allocation process and that housing providers are informed of the history of such offenders. I am sorry to inform members that that is not the case. Stuart Leggate, who had served two years of a four-year sentence for sex acts against children, was able to choose to live in the Royston area of Glasgow. He was not managed through the housing allocation process and he was housed in an area that has a high population of young children, and within 100yd of a nursery and two primary schools.

When someone has been convicted of sex acts against children, they should forgo many of the life choices that are available to law-abiding citizens, including the choice of where to reside. We need to create a rigid and efficient environment to ensure that we manage sex offenders and that they do not manage us during the process.

The minister should ensure that legislation is introduced to establish a structure that will deliver the basic requirement of managing sex offenders through the housing allocation process while dealing with sex offenders' being able to assume aliases. It is unacceptable that both Ian Huntley and Stuart Leggate assumed aliases. Parliament should investigate a possible partnership with Westminster to consider withdrawing the right to an alias.

I will refer to sentencing policy. Stuart Leggate served two years of a four-year sentence for sex acts against young children. It is unacceptable that he should be released only two years into his sentence. Many academics and world-renowned experts on the subject tell us that dealing with registered sex offenders is a difficult and complex issue—I agree with them all. Why, in that case, should we release sex offenders halfway through their sentences?

We should significantly increase the sentencing tariffs that are available to sheriffs in respect of registered child sex offenders. Moreover, a life sentence should mean life for individuals who have shown during the process that they are not capable of being treated. I ask the minister to respond to the specific question of how we can ensure that tariffs are increased.

On neighbourhood notification, much has been said about how we notify communities of the presence of child sex offenders. A lot has also been said about vigilantes. I do not represent a community of vigilantes; I represent hard-working men and women who wish to live in harmony in their communities, and who care deeply for the safety of their young children. There have been no vigilantes in Royston. Although there are examples of vigilante action, we are dealing with people who want to work constructively with the authorities to examine ways in which they can protect their children.

I have always maintained that to take this issue forward, we, as elected members, should not be so arrogant as to dismiss any opportunity that is presented to us on the ways in which we can protect children from registered child sex offenders. The Executive should at least investigate opportunities that are available to it worldwide, and it should examine international examples of cases in which information on registered sex offenders has been shared with communities. The intention would be to use the information in a controlled and responsible environment, in which the safety of the child is paramount.

An issue also arises in respect of how we share information, not only with communities but with authorities such as housing authorities. The fact that this gift is in the possession of only the police authorities is unacceptable. We have to consider the various authorities that deal with sex offenders, sometimes indirectly, and we must ensure that relevant and accurate information is provided to them.

We hear far too much about information-sharing partnerships and the existing partnerships that are in place. We should introduce legislation to ensure that information partnerships are established to deal with how we share information on registered sex offenders.

It is important that we learn from the experience of young Mark's death. Margaret Ann Cummings has made it very clear that she does not want a blame culture to follow Mark's death, but a culture in which all of us accept with humility that we could have got it much more right than we did. Let us show humility and introduce a "Mark's law" that will ensure that everything possible is done to protect our future generations.