Rapists and paedophiles are fast-tracked off sex offenders register due to ‘dangerous’ loopholes in law
Our probe uncovered a raft of cases where predators are dumped back on the streets rather than jailed
RAPISTS and paedophiles are being put on the Sex Offenders Register for less than two years.
A Sun on Sunday probe found some perverts have even been taken off in the same year they committed crimes.
Jazmin Jones, 23, whose five-year-old sister April was killed after being sexually assaulted by Mark Bridger in 2012, has described it as “totally wrong.” She said: “Abusers are getting off with a slap on the wrist and a couple of years, if that, on a register.
It gives them the chance to go back and do it again.”
April’s family want perverts registered for life.
But our investigation found one man who carried out a four-year campaign of abuse from 2013 was removed from the register in 2017 — the same year he was found guilty of raping a child.
He was monitored by Staffordshire cops. A second offender in their area spent less than two years on the register after assaulting a girl under 16.
In one case, a fiend who raped a schoolgirl of 12 struck again after a Scottish sheriff let him off with a community payback order.
Another beast spent less than two years on the list because cops were legally obliged to delete his details.
And a third sex attacker was on the register for just 69 days.
Margaret-Ann Cummings, 43 — whose son Mark, eight, was murdered by serial sex beast Stuart Leggate, 43, in Royston, Glasgow, in 2004 — called our findings “disturbing”.
She added: “It’s an outrage that anyone convicted of rape should simply be put back on the streets instead of behind bars.
“These mistakes are then compounded because soft sentences are leading on to light-touch supervision and a fast track off the register.
“How can someone capable of raping a child be considered safe enough to drop off the register in less than two years?
“The soft approach has already led to another child being traumatised and it will keep on happening until the authorities get a grip.”
Jailed perverts have to notify cops of their whereabouts for at least seven years after release. More serious offenders can be on the register for life with a review every 15 years.
But if a judge lets them off with a community payback order, Police Scotland has to delete their details within 36 months — sometimes less.
Jailed under-18s have their time on the register halved. Our investigation found hundreds of perverts have dropped off the register in the last two years — including more than 400 guilty of child abuse image offences.
A 59-page dossier released to us under Freedom of Information laws gives each crime, conviction date and year in which their allocated time ran out or when they were deemed “no longer a risk”.
We also uncovered a 2016 report showing how a Tayside teen got a three-year payback order for raping a child — then targeted a girl of 13.
Nats unveiled plans to axe jail terms of up to a year — pushing hundreds more sex offenders on to payback orders and getting them off the register faster.
Tory MSP Liam Kerr said: “The SNP’s soft-touch justice has opened a dangerous loophole that must be closed immediately.
“It’s not just a total failure to punish a criminal, it could seriously risk the safety of our children.”
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Those on the register have to keep police informed of their address, relationships and plans to travel abroad.
The Home Office said: “The UK has some of the toughest powers in the world to deal with sex offenders.”
But campaigner Marisa Keegan has slammed the system for “putting criminals’ careers before our children’s welfare”.
She started a petition after Christopher Daniel, 18, of Glasgow, wasn’t put on the register despite sex assaults on a girl aged six.
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