Sex predators beware

Yesterday Assistant Commissioner of Police, Irwin Hackshaw confirmed that the Police Service is working with a mandate from government to compile the information to set up the sex registry but he could not give a time frame when the website will be completed and made available to the public.

Hackshaw said that the police is mindful of the fears being expressed by members of the public where the crimes committed against children seem to be a burning concern.

He said the Minister of National Security has expressed a deep interest in ensuring that all the necessary information regarding sex offenders is recorded in the interest of having officers place those persons under surveillance to protect the lives of innocent citizens.

Hackshaw also assured that nationals deported from foreign countries for criminal offences, including those charged with sex crimes committed against children, are being closely monitored by officers in the districts where they reside and by other arms of the Police Service.

According to Hackshaw, based on the deportee list sent to him on a regular basis, about 30 people on average are deported back to this country mainly from the United States and Canada.

He said he has given instructions for returned individuals, who are declared to be paedophiles, to be kept under constant surveillance and added that the monitoring has been stepped in the wake of reports of minors being harmed by sex predators.

He also pointed out that persons charged with other criminal offences in foreign countries, who were deported, are also being monitored closely.

With respect to the release of a sex offenders registry released by the US Justice Department in the United States which lists the names of at least ten Trinidad and Tobago nationals charged with sex crimes against children who were returned to this country, Hackshaw said he was aware of the names appearing in the registry and had given instructions to officers to ensure that these persons are kept under the radar indefinitely.