Noncewatch - 'Sarah's Law' call to police

The mother of murdered eight-year-old Sarah Payne is to urge police to back public access to the national Sex Offenders' Register.
Sara Payne (right with Sarah, inset) is to address the Police Federation's annual conference in Blackpool on Tuesday.
She is seeking support for the so-called 'Sarah's Law', which would give the public details of sex offenders living in the community.
She told the BBC on Tuesday she was keen to clear up misconceptions about the measure, which has been resisted by the Home Office because of concerns over vigilantism.

<>"We have only ever asked for access to information on the most serious of paedophiles that are the Roy Whitings of this world - sexual predators - not on flashers in the street or other offenders," said Mrs Payne.
<>"When someone like that is put into a community, the community needs to know they are there.
<>"They don't necessarily know the name or address, but they know that person is in their community and at large."
<>Mrs Payne, 34, who is expecting another child, said the police officers she met were her biggest supporters.

She insisted "strict guidelines" would have to be in place to prevent people acting as vigilantes.
But, she said: "Up to eight children a year are abducted and murdered and so it's not enough just for the police to know - I think the communities need to know when you have a sexual predator in your midst."

Police Federation chairman Jan Berry said she did not believe the general public should have unrestricted access to the register. But there were still issues about the control of paedophiles and other dangerous sex offenders which had to be debated, she said.

Emotive offences
"The issue with the Sex Offenders' Register is that we need to have a register that people can access, but that access must be restricted," she said.
"I don't think the general public, when you are dealing with really emotive offences like this, have the maturity to deal with that information in a sensitive way.
"When that happens, police officers then have to protect the paedophiles from the public who try to resolve things themselves."

Ms Berry said the debate, attended by 1,000 rank-and-file officers from England and Wales, was important. "Police officers need to think about looking at this issue from a different perspective sometimes," she said.

Sarah disappeared near her grandparents' home in West Sussex in July 2000, and her body was found 17 days later near Pulborough.

Roy Whiting, 42, a convicted sex offender, was eventually jailed for life for Sarah's murder in December 2001.