Sarah's Law to reach Sussex this autumn (From The Argus)

Sarah's Law to reach Sussex this autumn

3:40pm Saturday 31st July 2010

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A SCHEME where parents will be told about paedophiles living and working in Sussex will come into force in the county this autumn.

The new Sarah's Law gives parents the right to check with police whether anyone with unsupervised access to their children has a criminal conviction for child sex offences.

The programme follows the abduction and murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne by convicted sex offender Roy Whiting in Kingston Gorse, near Littlehampton, ten years ago.

The youngster's mother Sara has spent years campaigning to bring in the law.

It is based on so-called Megan's Law in the US which allows the publication of names, addresses and pictures of paedophiles in some states.

The pilot scheme, which has been running across four areas since September 2008, will be rolled out to eight more areas from Sunday.

It will then reach Sussex, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire, Leicestershire, Wiltshire, Cheshire, Durham, Northumbria, Dorset, Lincolnshire, Surrey and Gloucestershire later this year before being extended across England and Wales next spring.

Sarah, eight, was kidnapped as she played in a cornfield near her grandparents home in 2000. Her body was found in a field 15 miles away near Pulborough 17 days later.

Convicted paedophile Roy Whiting, 44, from Littlehampton, was found guilty of sexually abusing and strangling her and jailed for life in 2001.

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