Coddington launches second sex offenders index

3.20pm

ACT MP Deborah Coddington has published the second edition of her controversial sex offenders index, listing nearly 1900 convicted offenders.

The New Zealand Paedophile and Sex Offender Index went on sale today and Ms Coddington said it would go some way toward protecting the innocent from the horrors of sexual abuse.

"Victims' rights must be protected, and the public deserves to know the dangers that exist in their communities and on their very doorstep," she said.

"With this information, law-abiding New Zealanders can enjoy life, liberty and happiness, free from fear."

Ms Coddington said she had named those who could be legally identified, and had not included anyone whose name was suppressed.

She published the first index in 1996, before she was an MP. It listed about 500 offenders, and caused an outcry.

"I felt like the most hated woman in New Zealand," she said today.

"I received death threats, I hired a security guard to accompany my youngest child home from school."

She said she would not get death threats this time.

"Publicity will be muted. Society has moved a long way since 1996."

Ms Coddington said she was still puzzled by the reaction to her first book.

"What I had done, by listing just over 500 offenders in a book, was nothing compared with what the offenders had done to others."

She said she knew there was a very high degree of recidivism in sex offending, and some of those named in her new book had committed crimes since being identified in the first one.

"There is no silver bullet to stop sex offending against children, but we can do a lot more to educate them about telling someone when an adult is molesting them," she said.

"For me, the battle's over only when there is no child left behind."

Ms Coddington said all the offenders in her new book had been previously identified in newspapers or by radio stations.

The offences she has listed go back to 1989.

"Any claims that I've trawled back about 30 years looking for people who have committed minor crimes are absolutely untrue," she said.

The book has an alphabetical index of offenders, with brief details of their crimes, a list of offenders by town, city or area, and another list by occupation.

Ms Coddington, who came to Parliament in last year's election, has drafted a member's bill to establish an official register of serious sexual offenders.

All the parties in Parliament voted for it to go to a select committee. Public submissions closed today.

The Government has indicated it supports the general intent of the bill.

- NZPA