Children's group urges travel restrictions on paedophiles

A children’s charity today called for tighter travel controls on convicted paedophiles like Gary Glitter.

Glam rocker Glitter will later this month be released from prison in Vietnam where he is serving a three-year sentence for molesting two young girls.

But the NSPCC today warned the British authorities were “powerless” to prevent him travelling abroad and committing more sex crimes.

Police can request a Foreign Travel Order to stop paedophiles they suspect will reoffend from going abroad.

But the charity said only three such orders had been put in place since their introduction in 2003.

Head of policy Diana Sutton said: “Gary Glitter is a persistent offender responsible for a catalogue of sexual crimes against children.

“We are concerned that current travel prevention orders, designed to prevent a sex offender from going overseas, are not working. Hardly any have been issued in the past five years.

“We want the UK government to urgently review the power and scope of these orders, so that where there is clear evidence a sex offender poses a risk to children, the authorities have effective powers to stop them from travelling.”

She said the orders were not working because they needed to be renewed every six months with proof the offender was still a risk to children.

The charity wants the law to require paedophiles to tell police of their travel plans.

Glitter, 64, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was arrested at Ho Chi Minh airport as he tried to leave Vietnam in November 2005.

He was convicted in March 2006 of committing obscene acts with two girls aged 10 and 11.

Last week it emerged he will be released from prison on August 19.

His plans on release are unclear, but it was reported he intends to move to Singapore or Hong Kong.

In Britain, Glitter served half of a four-month sentence in 1999 for possessing 4,000 child pornography images and is on the sex offenders’ register.

Convicted sex offenders who are on the register must notify the police if they intend to travel overseas for more than two days.

Failure to inform the police is punishable by up to five years in prison.

A British Home Office spokeswoman said: “Where it is known that a sex offender convicted in another country is to be deported to the UK, he is met at the port of entry by the police who interview him and pass any relevant information to the police in the area to which the offender is proposing to live.

“The Sexual Offences Act 2003 introduced a new civil order designed to ensure that those convicted of sex offences overseas are made to sign on the sex offenders register in the UK.

“This is called a notification order. Breach of the sex offenders register is a criminal offence with a maximum punishment of five years’ imprisonment.

“Offenders convicted of sexual offences, whether in the UK or overseas, may be monitored under multi-agency public protection arrangements (Mappa) which are a statutory set of arrangements established by the police, probation and prison service in each area to assess and manage the risk of certain offenders.”