Probation officers have ‘no power’ over sex offenders
Union representatives say that while there are penalties for sex offenders who don’t comply with post-release supervision orders, probation workers don’t have legal powers to bring offenders back to court.
“There are concerns that if you have responsibility for supervising sex offenders you can’t effectively supervise people properly and fully unless you have a means of dealing with people who fail to comply with supervision,” said David Williamson of trade union Impact’s probation section.
He said there could be situations where an offender was not keeping appointments or was engaging in risky behaviour.
“Say if they were seen four times outside a school in two weeks or had housed themselves in an area where they shouldn’t be, you don’t have a procedure to take them back to court.”
The issue follows media revelations over the weekend that paedophile and former swimming coach Derry O’Rourke, who is on a post-release supervision order, had been living in Baltinglass, Co Wicklow.
Due to the media exposure the 59-year-old has been relocated by the social services, although he had not breached any supervision conditions.
Section 33 of the Sex Offenders Act 2001 makes it an offence for a sex offender to breach a supervision order, but the act does not lay out the powers and procedures available to probation officers in such situations.
“Probation officers would be concerned of the lack of legal support in returning a case to court,” said Mr Williamson. “A barrister would say ‘by what right did you seek the return of that matter, under what power?’ That power is nowhere.”
He said former justice minister Michael McDowell had indicated the loophole would be addressed in the Criminal Justice Act 2006, but that didn’t happen.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said the issue would be addressed in forthcoming legislation.
“The Criminal Law (Trafficking in Persons and Sexual Offences) Bill, at present being drafted... gives a probation officer power of prosecution in cases where an offender does not comply with any of the supervision period conditions,” he said.
Mr Williamson said there was also a need for a comprehensive system of information sharing and communication between the Probation Service and gardaí.
“We are still awaiting developments. Sharing information is vital. If we don’t have that structure then we are really running into serious problems and increasing the risks.”
