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A bereaved mother is to appeal to MSPs for a new law requiring the police and councils to tell people if a convicted sex offender is living in their area.
Margaret Ann Cummings will present a 5,000-signature petition to parliament.
She wants parents to be told when a sex offender is being housed in their neighbourhood.
What are your views on this? Do you think this law or laws like this should be put in place?
RealityGap
08-09-2005, 11:36
it is a tough question - I am a mother of young children and of course I don't want any thing to happen to my children so the "gut reaction" is to say of course I want to know about them - BUT if the justice system is working properly and sex offenders have been properly evaluated for risk to the community and they have deemed them safe then I guess these people have paid for their crimes and have the right to a life with people not knowing about their past......that is a hard one
Im the same as you im not sure about this - Your right in saying that if the system is working properly and then been deemed safe the community doesn't really have to know - this could put this person's life at risk but then again who deems a person safe??? How do they truly know that this person is not going to offend again.
Just look and the man that killed Rory - He had skipped bail after abusing 3 young girls and no one was really looking for him!!! Why was he out on bail in the first place??
Behemoth
08-09-2005, 11:54
I think that you should be made aware if there is a convicted sex offender in the area, but not his address and everything.
we really need to protect these kids from sex offenders
RealityGap
08-09-2005, 12:02
We do need to protect our kids - BUT a child is more likely to be abused by a male relative of theres than by anyone else - (fathers and Uncles are the highest)
I just feel that knowing where these people live just adds panic and fear into the community.
If you are parenting your children closely and giving them adequate supervission the risks of these people are minimal
Chloe O'brien
08-09-2005, 12:23
I can understand the mothers anixety as it is every parents worst nightmare to lose a child in such away. Also parents emotions are sky high at the moment with the young boy from Livingstone (Rory) being so cruelly taken.
I can still remember 22 years ago when the little girl Caroline was abducted from Portobello beach, I was at the beach that day in July and was one of the volunteers who searched the area looking for her. I still don't know to this day on whether that monster passed me with her I was 16 years old and too busy having a carry on with my pals.
The only way that our children will be safe is for the judges and courts to lock up these scumbags and throw away the key the first-time they offend otherwise it will be someone else child.
I do think the law should be changed but im not sure if this is the right way to do it
RealityGap
08-09-2005, 12:59
I do think the law should be changed but im not sure if this is the right way to do it
I am with you Luna - I dont think that it is right that sex offenders are just placed back into the community BUT dont think that it is right that their identitied are plastered everywhere
A bereaved mother is to appeal to MSPs for a new law requiring the police and councils to tell people if a convicted sex offender is living in their area.
Margaret Ann Cummings will present a 5,000-signature petition to parliament.
She wants parents to be told when a sex offender is being housed in their neighbourhood.
What are your views on this? Do you think this law or laws like this should be put in place?
i would want to know, just as a safety reason
I think that you should be made aware if there is a convicted sex offender in the area, but not his address and everything.
no id want the adress and everything!! not because i would want to do anything just because id want to knwow
Dr. Tangliss
08-09-2005, 13:22
I think that you should be made aware if there is a convicted sex offender in the area, but not his address and everything.
Agreed! I would want to know considering I have two young children.
This is really difficult, but I agree with Rob and Tangliss. As parents we should be informed that there are people on the sex offenders register living with in our communities, but not who they are.
I live in Livingston, and Rory Blackhall lived 1/2 a mile from my home, although he was killed at the other end of town. I now know that the police interviewed 20 convicted paedophiles from the sex offenders register who live in Livingston in the hours after his disappearance.
His murderer wasn't one of them as he had not been convicted and therefore was not on the register.
To be frank I now feel much less safe. I worry for my children all the time and I am constantly at them, have you got your phone, phone me when you get there, go straight there don't go in the woods. (I live beside a country park and the whole area is woodland, the kids played there all the time before this.)
I don't think that there are more paedophiles here than anywhere else, so you can safely assume that there are some in your area.
It is scary.
We need to teach our kids personnal safety rules and enforce them. But it is such a shame.
Trinity there was anther boy found dead there today just read it in the news
OMG - 10 -14. Rory has a 14 year old brother!
It sounds like suicide???
What is the place coming too!
My boys are 11 and 13. And I am so scared for them.
I really hope it's not his brother...the poor parents
The body was found at 6 am. Does that mean that the boys was out all night?
I don't know where kestral park is ?
Neither do i
The first report said that a man going to work found him in the swing park at 6am!!! So it looks like either they have been out all night or they have snuck out
I was finding it funny when they said it was not a suspisious death how can it not be if a young boy is found dead at that time of the morning so soon after The rory murder
I am looking for this swing park - I am sure that it isn't in my immediate area, but there are loads of parks in Livingston. I wasn't aware of them having names really. My boys are at school, the eldest is in Edinburgh near my work and the youngest in Livingston, he is p7. I just feel like crying. Another family devestated.
It is in the Ladywell area of town, not that far from the hospital.
Oh right i know where that is i think - are you close to that?
RealityGap
08-09-2005, 14:24
omg this is awful news - we lived in falkirk and spent a gopd bit of time in Livingston
I am probably 2-3 miles away from me. It isn't that far from where Rory was found, maybe a mile or so
sex offenders should be locked up not living in houses beside kids
Just found out that little boy was either hanged or hung himself
A bereaved mother is to appeal to MSPs for a new law requiring the police and councils to tell people if a convicted sex offender is living in their area.
Margaret Ann Cummings will present a 5,000-signature petition to parliament.
She wants parents to be told when a sex offender is being housed in their neighbourhood.
What are your views on this? Do you think this law or laws like this should be put in place?I would definitely like to know if there were any housed near me, not their addresses, but i would like to know - my eldest is 12 and walks to school with his mates etc and as he gets older will become more independant and I want him to be. This doesn't mean I don't supervise him adequately though, he's not allowed to half as much as a lot of his friends the same age and I know plenty of people that send their 6yr olds down the shops (a mile away).
I don't personally feel that someone who has repeatedly committed crimes against young people (or older ones for that matter) can successfully be rehabilitated - what stops them from having these "urges"?! Therefore if they do repeatedly offend, they should rot in hell and never be allowed to see daylight again......
RealityGap
08-09-2005, 16:32
Just found out that little boy was either hanged or hung himself
that is so terrible - his poor family
yes i think we should be informed of where they live etc if near to us,why protect them? what about the protection for our children?
yes i think we should be informed of where they live etc if near to us,why protect them? what about the protection for our children?
They dont deserve protection
I don't personally feel that someone who has repeatedly committed crimes against young people (or older ones for that matter) can successfully be rehabilitated - what stops them from having these "urges"?! Therefore if they do repeatedly offend, they should rot in hell and never be allowed to see daylight again......
To some extent they have an illness that cannot be cured, if you put them in prison for a few years and then let them out they are still going to have the same "urges"
I really dont know what the solution is
To some extent they have an illness that cannot be cured, if you put them in prison for a few years and then let them out they are still going to have the same "urges"
I really dont know what the solution isExactly Jade - their urges aren't going to go away and possibly could get more intense as they are all generally put together to "keep them safe" !!!! Why keep them safe - it should be our children that are safe!
Just to let you know this law has been rejected
I think the thing to try and remember is that these people have existed in the past in the same degree as what they do now, we just didn't hear about them so much. As parents we need to act responsibly - still try and allow our children to have a form of independance and freedom, whilst still being aware of the dangers that can surround them.......
RealityGap
09-09-2005, 10:17
I think the thing to try and remember is that these people have existed in the past in the same degree as what they do now, we just didn't hear about them so much. As parents we need to act responsibly - still try and allow our children to have a form of independance and freedom, whilst still being aware of the dangers that can surround them.......
This is what I was trying to say and failing! As I posted yesterday our children are more at risk from family members and the person most likely to kill your teenage daughter is herself - these are scary but true facts
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