The British Home Secretary, Mr David Blunkett, has promised longer prison sentences for convicted paedophiles and a significant new role for trained parents in the supervision of sex offenders.
He announced his intentions yesterday in response to the mounting demand for action following Roy Whiting's conviction for the murder of Sarah Payne, and ahead of a meeting tomorrow with Sarah's parents and the editor of the News of the World, which has been campaigning for controlled public access to information about paedophiles living in the community.
At Scotland Yard's request the newspaper yesterday published the names and photographs of four dangerous paedophiles whose whereabouts are unknown to police, even though they should be registered sex offenders and subject to monitoring.
The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr John Prescott, welcomed the move as "public-spirited" and said the newspaper was performing "more or less" like the television programme Crimewatch. At the same time he stopped short of endorsing demands for a "Sarah's law" and said people should be "vigilant" but not "vigilante". Police chiefs, meanwhile, were pressing ministers for still more radical changes in the law to permit known paedophiles to be locked up without charge in an attempt to prevent more murders.