Legal bid to warn partners of sex offenders

GARDAÍ monitoring paedophiles and other sex offenders will be able to warn potential victims, including partners, under legislation being drafted.

Where gardaí or probation officers become aware that an offender is living with a new partner, or has access to children, they will notify the person. The system may also allow people to contact police, as in the North, and ask if a partner who is due to move in with them is a sex offender.

The move, which has been welcomed by rape survivor groups, is part of a raft of measures on sex offenders being progressed by the Department of Justice. Other measures include: