Sex offender sentering UK ‘should reveal criminal past’
In its review of Patrick Rea’s case the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) outlined how difficult it was for authorities to deal with foreigners who were offenders in their own country. It wants foreign nationals with convictions for sexual and other specified crimes, as well as British nationals convicted of such crimes while abroad, to be forced to reveal their convictions upon entering or returning to Britain.
Patrick Rea was sentenced in Dublin in 1997 to a total of 29 years imprisonment on charges of rape, sexual assault, assault, and false imprisonment.
The 42-year-old Longford native was released from custody in 2002.
Three years later he first came to the attention of authorities in Scotland when he was reported missing by his then partner. They had presented themselves as homeless and been placed in a bed and& breakfast in Stranraer. During the operation to find him, Scottish police were told by gardaí that he was a registered sex offender in Ireland and were given a summary of his previous convictions.
A week after he was found by police when he and two others were arrested for breaking into a house.
He was released on bail and fled back to Ireland before his trial. He would flit between the two countries over the following years amassing criminal convictions in both jurisdictions.
In Jan 2010, Scottish police were notified by a concerned resident at a caravan park near Aberdeen, that Rea was living there and the resident believed he was wanted in Ireland for skipping bail. Again when contact was made with gardaí, Scottish authorities were told he was a registered sex offender here.
Later in the same month, his sex crime past arose again when he was told by police he needed to inform his new partner that he was a registered sex offender, or otherwise child protection issues would arise in relation to the woman’s children.
Just two months later he was arrested for the rape and murder of Mary McLaren, a mother of three, in Dundee.
Rea is now serving 20 years in a Scottish prison for the crimes.
The ACPOS report recomm-ended that gardaí consider “learning points” arising from its review, “with a view to further developing the inter-country management of registered sex offenders who travel between Ireland and Scotland [and the whole of Britain], in the context of the ease of movement between the countries”.
