No bar to returning sex pests

THERE is nothing to stop sex offenders with local residential qualifications returning to Guernsey. Home minister Mike Torode said that Michelle Bougourd, who was convicted of having sex with a 15-year-old boy while living in Lancashire, was entitled to come back to the island.

'There is nothing to stop her from coming back - she is a local resident with residential qualifications and she is perfectly entitled to come back home,' said Deputy Torode.

The rules would not stop paedophiles convicted of serious offences from coming back to the island either, even though non-locals with such a record would be likely to be refused a housing licence.

'They have absolute freedom to return to the island. Anyone with a residential qualification can come back to the island whatever, unless a court specifically excluded them from going to a certain area or mixing with certain people.'

Deputy Torode said that any other course of action would be unlikely to be human rights compliant.

Bougourd, 41, was ordered to sign the UK sex offenders' register for five years earlier this week after she admitted having an affair with a 15-year-old boy while living in Nelson, near Burnley in Lancashire.

She was sentenced at Burnley Crown Court on Monday and ordered to complete a three-year supervision order and disqualified from working with children for life.

The register enables police to monitor the whereabouts of sex offenders when they leave prison and more ably assess the risk posed by a particular sex offender.

Deputy Torode said that, while Guernsey did not yet have such a register, the court order banning Bougourd from working with young people would apply here.

He said the law applied regardless of the offender's gender and would be maintained and upheld by the island's police force.

'We don't have a sex offenders' register at the present time, although we are looking to have one in the not-too-distant future.'

Deputy Torode could not say whether the register would include those already convicted of sex offences or just those convicted after it was put in place.

'It is pretty obvious to me that she will be known in the island and I would have thought that in itself would prevent her from reoffending.'

But local children's charities would still like to see the introduction of a register.

'Any legislation or legal process that enhances the safeguarding of children would be welcomed,' said NCH Youth Housing Project deputy manager Kareena Hodgson.