British paper resumes campaign to name paedophiles

By CAHAL MILMO

LONDON - As far as the News of the World was concerned, everything was in place – the newspaper had photographs of seven wanted child abusers and, more importantly, police support to "name and shame" them.

Under the headline "police want you to help trap these paedophiles", Britain's biggest-selling newspaper yesterday rode into battle against sex offenders armed with a carefully constructed aura of official sanction and moral rectitude.

Detective Chief Inspector Bob McLachlan, head of Scotland Yard's paedophile unit, told the paper four of the men had breached the Sex Offenders Act and were considered "dangerous". He called on people to be "vigilant, not vigilante".

Home Secretary David Blunkett, writing in an article which appeared next to photographs of the two victims of Roy Whiting, the killer of Sarah Payne, announced tougher sentences for abusers and plans for community involvement in the management of released offenders.

Such was the NoW's confidence in its front page package that Rebekah Wade, the newspaper's previously publicity-shy editor, was wheeled out onto BBC1's Breakfast With Frost to explain the campaign.

She told viewers: "My point still remains that whilst there are 110,000 convicted child sex offenders in Britain living unmonitored, then it is only right that the public have controlled access."

When Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott stepped forward on Breakfast With Frost to praise as "public spirited" the decision to publish details of the four men wanted by the Yard, a publicity coup for the paper was complete.

Or at least so it seemed.

The Yard last night left two of the Government's most senior ministers in an awkward position by accusing the newspaper of falsely claiming it had official backing for the publication of details of one paedophile known to be staying at a London bail hostel.

Yesterday's edifice of co-operation between Wapping and the authorities, which last night looked in mortal peril, had been built with painstaking care and attention.

Some 17 months earlier, in the heightened atmosphere of public fear and anger that followed the murder of eight-year-old Sarah, things had been very different.

On July 23 last year, the NoW's recently installed editor Rebekah Wade launched its infamous campaign for a "Sarah's Law" for controlled access to the details of all 110,000 paedophiles in Britain.

Parents queued to buy copies of the paper, adding some 95,000 extra sales to the circulation figures as readers looked to identify the 100 offenders named on the first day of the campaign.

Writing at the time, Ms Wade said: "Our intention is not to provoke violence. The disturbing truth is that the authorities are failing to properly monitor the activities of paedophiles in the community."

What followed was an explosion of vigilantism which reached its peak in a week of rioting on the Paulsgrove estate in Portsmouth by a group of residents brandishing a list of 20 "known" abusers.

The NoW campaign was praised in some quarters for capturing the public mood but roundly condemned by others including politicians and the Association of Chief Police Officers.

Tony Butler, Gloucestershire chief constable, said the newspaper was engaged in "irresponsible journalism".

On August 6, the day after a mob injured a policeman and overturned a car outside the Paulsgrove home of Victor Burnett, a paedophile named by the paper, the campaign was called off with a claim that the Government had promised a "Sarah's Law".

Home Office minister Paul Boateng flatly denied the claim the same day.

Ms Wade, writing in the paper a week later, admitted that the "contemptible" actions of the vigilantes had tarnished the campaign: "They present the greatest threat to Sarah's Law and there must be no more violence."

So, when Roy Whiting was convicted at Lewes Crown Court on Wednesday and the fact of his past conviction for the abduction and sexual assault of a nine-year-old girl became known, both the authorities and the newspaper were anxious to avoid a repeat of the summer of 2000.

The Yard confirmed it had chosen NoW as the "natural" outlet for its efforts to trace the four men – Raymond Perkins, David Baron, Zia Alowi and Tuan Quang Ho – who had failed to tell police of their whereabouts.

One Yard source said: "It was the right time to put this information in the public domain and the News of the World was the most obvious and instinctive choice."

For both sides it was an ideal arrangement – senior officers and the Government could channel the newspaper into naming only abusers who had broken the law and were considered at risk of reoffending.

The indiscriminate publication of details of offenders, which critics blamed for leading to witch hunts up and down the country, would be avoided.

As Mr Prescott put it: "If you look at the News of the World today, I think what they are doing is more or less (BBC1's) Crimewatch … This is quite different to what led to all that kind of vigilantism."

For the newspaper, the advantages were obvious – it could re-launch its campaign for Sarah's Law by naming four dangerous men with the full approval of Britain's biggest police force.

But police yesterday pointed out that one of the men featured in the News of the World was not wanted in connection with any breach of the Sex Offenders Act and was under supervision in a bail hostel.

Campaign groups, led by the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, last night accused the paper of committing the same errors that led to such explosions of unrest as Paulsgrove.

Are the best laid plans of one of Britain's brashest newspapers once more going to waste?

The News of the World was last night unavailable for comment about the Yard allegations.

But its editor signalled that – with or without official backing – it may yet return to publishing the details of peadophiles whose whereabouts were already known.

Ms Wade said: "I haven't given it up. We may come back to that."

Last night, it seemed the newspaper already has.

- INDEPENDENT