A crime too difficult to cope with

The sound of the word makes most people shudder.

While killers, fraudsters, thieves and bashers can generally be re-accepted into the community, paedophiles are in a class of their own.

It seems no one wants them. The usual reaction is; "Lock 'em up and throw away the key".

The latest to bear the brunt of public fear and indignation is a man who made the mistake of moving into the small West Coast town of Blackball.

The controversy broke last week when police told Blackball School a registered sex offender was living in the town under supervision.

On Saturday, under pressure from locals, who were keeping vigil outside his home and displaying signs saying "Get out of town, freak" and "A paedophile lives here", the man fled.

He is the latest in a long line of sex offenders, particularly paedophiles, to have been outed by police and others.

And although the outing of such people may make communities feel more secure, they do not help in rehabilitating offenders.

Today, director of Auckland-based sex offender treatment programme Safe, John McCarthy, said 90 per cent of sexual offenders did not reoffend.

People would be better off learning how to recognise potentially dangerous behaviour from offenders than running them out of town.

Last year, commenting on the case of notorious sex offender Peter Liddell, Mr McCarthy said the key to stopping paedophiles was remembering most abuse was committed against children known to them, and recognising the "grooming" behaviour of offenders.

That could be more important than telling communities a paedophile had moved in.

"There is absolutely no evidence that notifying communities ... actually protects kids," Mr McCarthy said.

He said Liddell's reoffending had underlined the need for a 10-year plan for "manipulative and clever" offenders.

He acknowledged men such as Liddell were special cases.

"I have worked with child sex offenders for about 12 years and I lost my naivety about this a long time ago - there are clearly some people we are unable to treat.

"One response is to lock them up and throw away the key, a hugely expensive response and frankly lots of victims of sexual abuse don't want that either."

Mr McCarthy said it was important to have decent and accurate community education and there was a case for some notification within the community because some offenders, a small minority, had a high potential for reoffending.

"When you're dealing with a high- risk offender then I guess some notification of key community figures is warranted. But the vast majority of child sex offenders don't require anywhere near that level of monitoring and supervision."

Paedophiles needed to be surrounded by the right kind of management, with the power to remove them from the community if needed.

New Zealand had relatively low child sex abuse reoffending rates of between 5 and 10 per cent, compared with overseas paedophiles and other types of offenders, he said.

Paul Tomlinson, regional manager southern, Community Probation Service, said the man in the Blackball case was currently on release conditions and has been for the past 10 months.

"He is being closely managed by the Community Probation Service and is required to report regularly. When his release conditions end, in July 2005, he will be subject to an extended supervision order, which will ensure he continues to be closely managed for a further 10 years," Mr Tomlinson said in a statement.

The man had moved to Blackball without permission from the service, and a breach of conditions charge had been laid in the district court.

"The checking process was completed shortly after he moved and approval given. This followed consideration of whether the address was appropriate - ie, was his risk of re-offending increased by residing there and could the offender be satisfactorily monitored at the address."