Scheme to erase convictions urged

Sex offenders who have been free from criminal conviction for up to four years after serving their sentence should have their records expunged, a human rights and criminal justice conference was told at the weekend.

Presenting a report to the conference on "spent convictions", to be submitted to the Government next month, barrister Bronagh Maher, of the Spent Convictions Group, said that sex offenders should be entitled to avail of any scheme to expunge criminal convictions.

Ms Maher said that a scheme to expunge convictions was needed because the existence of a criminal record could affect a sex offender in a number of ways, including access to accommodation, entry to certain professions and general employment prospects.

She said that the main focus of the group was to limit the negative effect of a criminal conviction on employment. In a recent survey, 48 per cent of employers had said that they would not employ a person with a criminal record, she pointed out.

The expert group recommended that all sex offenders could apply to a central authority to have their criminal records expunged after being conviction-free for between one year and four years after serving their sentence, depending on its length.

Certain jobs and professions, including those dealing with vulnerable adults and children, would be exempted from the scheme.

Ms Maher said there was an innate prejudice against sex offenders which led to the assumption that they were predisposed to offend and were incapable of rehabilitation.

But a recent UCD study had found that sex offenders were less likely to reoffend than most other groups.