Sex offenders should be tagged, says judge

A DISTRICT COURT judge yesterday called for the electronic tagging of convicted paedophiles.

The system would help the gardaí enormously in the investigation of missing children cases, Judge Michael Pattwell said.

“I have seen first-hand how it operates very successfully in the United States and I have asked several Ministers for Justice to bring it in here,” he added.

Judge Pattwell said he did not want to comment on the case of 11-year-old Midleton boy Robert Holohan because the area is within his district court jurisdiction.

He said the tagging system he saw operating in the US allowed police to keep in constant contact with convicted child abusers.

“The child abusers had to be always within immediate phone contact of the police and there was a camera attached to the phone to confirm the identity of the paedophile,” Judge Pattwell said.

The Department of Justice is considering adding sex offenders to the list of criminals to be electronically tagged.

While the tagging proposals are primarily aimed at minor crimes, such as public order offences, officials are examining whether sex offenders could be included.

“It is being considered, although the focus is very much on minor offences and alternatives to custody,” said a Department of Justice spokeswoman.

She said there were a number of issues to consider. “Do you keep them in until the end of their sentence, and under close supervision, or release them and tag them?”

Electronic tagging proposals are to be brought in as amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill, 2004, which will begin its second stage in the Dáil next month.

The spokeswoman said there were major legal difficulties imposing penalties, such as tagging, in addition to a court sentence.

“It would have to be part of the sentence. You can’t continue to impose sanctions beyond what someone is sentenced to by the court.”

She said the Sex Offenders Register, which obliges released offenders to give gardaí their name and address, was a sanction, but said it was a relatively minor inconvenience.

She said there was a provision under the Sex Offenders Act, 2001, which brought in a new system of post-release supervision of sex offenders.

There are more than 350 sex offenders on the register.

Under this system, a court could sentence a sex offender to a determinate sentence with the latter part of it being served in the community under probation and welfare supervision. But the combined custodial and non-custodial periods cannot exceed the maximum custodial sentence available for the crime committed.

The spokeswoman said legislative changes could be necessary to allow for electronic tagging as part of this supervision.

However, as it stands, the tagging could not go on for longer than the total possible custodial sentence. People sentenced to life imprisonment are not included as they are placed under lifelong probation supervision as a condition of temporary release.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) said tagging had been used successfully in other jurisdictions.

AGSI president Joe Dirwan told the association’s AGM in 2003 tagging would ensure sexual offenders were kept away from schools and playgrounds.

“Recent developments include surgically implanted tags that can measure changes in the heartbeat and blood pressure of paedophiles, alerting the gardaí when and where an attack is imminent.”