WE’VE a right to know who’s living among our children.
That’s been one of the most popular refrains since it emerged that infamous child killer Jon Venables has been returned to jail.
To say there’s been a public outcry and mass hysteria is something of an understatement.
Irresponsible newspapers everywhere have breached a court order to pass comment on the potential whereabouts of the now adult Mr Venables over the past number of years.
It’s in the public interest is the cry from those who deem it necessary to exploit parents’ basic fears.
Surely it’s not in the public interest though to whip up the hysteria levels to the degree that someone who has a certain accent and physical description might be subjected to mob violence.
The government aren’t protecting ‘sex beasts’ because they don’t care about innocent children.
The truth is that the government aren’t protecting sex offenders at all, they are protecting the rest of us.
You only have to see what happened a few years ago when a newspaper printed the names and addresses of convicted sex offenders living in the community.
An angry mob in South Wales decided enough was enough and decided to take action against someone they believed to be a paedophile.
They sprayed the word ‘Paedo’ in yellow paint on the house of the person they suspected. Unfortunately it turned out that the suspect was a female doctor who happened to be a paediatrician rather than a paedophile.
Imagine what would have happened if her husband or boyfriend had been home at the time.