Law body wants sex offenders' records to be wiped
Legal forgiveness call for rehabilitated prisoners
SEX offenders should have their criminal records wiped clean within four years of their release under controversial proposals announced by the Law Society.
The Law Society, the ruling body for solicitors, has called for a "legal forgiveness" scheme for convicted sex offenders who undergo rehabilitation programmes and remain conviction-free.
The second-chance law would not apply to persistent sex offenders or those who continue to pose a risk to public safety, and "sensitive" occupations would be excluded.
The Government has announced plans to introduce new laws that would wipe the criminal record of people who serve six months or less in prison in a bid to reduce reoffending rates and remove the negative consequences of a criminal conviction.
But the Law Society has criticised the Government's plans as overly restrictive because of the six-month sentencing threshold, which excludes most serious offences.
It says a spent-convictions scheme should be available to all ex-offenders, excluding murderers, who have made genuine attempts to lead law-abiding lives, irrespective of their crime or the sentence imposed.
The report, launched by Mountjoy Governor John Lonergan last night, says there is an "innate prejudice" against sex offenders which leads to an assumption that they are predisposed to carry out sex attacks and incapable of rehabilitation.
"Research both in this jurisdiction and abroad refutes the commonly held belief that recidivism (reoffending) rates amongst sex offenders are higher than in ... other types of offender," said the Law Society.
"It would therefore be unjust and arbitrary, and lacking in any rational basis, to exclude all sex offenders from the scheme in all cases. There is no rational basis for excluding sex offenders on the basis of likelihood of reoffending."
But the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre last night said it would be "very wary" of the planned scheme as only one in 10 rape victims reported their attacks to gardai and of those that do, less than 10pc of reported cases result in a conviction.
The Rape Crisis Network, which has queried research on reoffending rates for sex offenders in Ireland, said effective risk analysis of offenders on their release would help to ascertain who was likely to reoffend.
Rehabilitation
"Four years is far too short a period," Dr Cliona Saidlear, policy and communications director of the RCNI, told the Irish Independent.
"There are those who will never be capable of not reoffending, but there is room to look at rehabilitation and post risk analysis for all offenders."
The Law Society, which finalised its report in conjunction with the Ballymun Community Law Centre, Ballymun Local Drugs Task Force, Business in the Community, Northside Community Law Centre and Northside Partnership, has called for the duty to disclose criminal convictions to be removed after a certain number of years.
Public safety concerns will be safeguarded by excluding certain sensitive jobs and full disclosure of convictions would be mandatory in specified cases.
- Dearbhail McDonald Legal Editor
