Police to get new powers to crack down on paedophiles in Australia

Queensland Police say proposed powers to inspect the devices of child sex offenders will help unmask paedophiles who are finding ever more ingenious ways to hide their crimes. 

The legislation, to be introduced to Queenland’s state parliament this week, will allow police to enter the residence of a reportable offender to inspect digital devices.

‘This will go a very long way to evening the playing field,’ Queensland Police Acting Chief Superintendent Denzil Clark said on Sunday.

Paedophiles are increasingly using sophisticated technology to hide their crimes online

‘At the moment our power of entry is in relation to confirming reportable offender’s personal details.

‘When it comes to a device inspection, we do not have that current power. We have to do it with the consent of the person, or we have to do it outside the premises.’

Police Minister Mark Ryan said since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic authorities had continued to identify new technology used by offenders to target children.

‘It is a very alarming and disturbing trend,’ he said.

‘Advanced anonymising software exists, such as virtual private networks and hidden phone applications, allowing these predators to remain invisible online.’

There are more than 17,000 convicted paedophiles in Australia.  Western Australia alone has more than 3,500 on its register for a population of less than 2.7 million

The proposed laws would require reportable offenders to disclose use of anonymising software as well as vault and black hole applications along with unique identifiers assigned to their digital networks.

A new offence, with penalties of up to five years’ jail for failing to comply with a requirement to produce a digital device for inspection, will also be introduced.

‘These offenders are the lowest of the low and I am determined they’ll have nowhere to hide,’ Mr Ryan said.

 The steady growth in sex offences has fuelled cries for a national public registry of sex offenders and more drastic measures such as chemical castration.

Official stats up to 2020 show the number of sexual offenders charged by police in Australia has grown by 13 per cent in a decade. 

There are more than 17,000 convicted paedophiles in Australia. 

The brutal rape and murder of 12-year-old Sian Kingi (pictured) led to a law making it tougher for sex offenders to get early release from jail

Western Australia alone has more than 3,500 on its register for a population of less than 2.7 million. 

High profile crimes such as the multiple rape and stabbing of 12-year-old schoolgirl Sian Kingi in 1987 have led to changes such as Sian’s Law, which makes it tougher for sex offenders to get early release from jail.

However, the regular calls for a national public registry of sex offenders have gone unheeded despite the backing of the Morcombe family.

Daniel Morcombe was just 13 when he was abducted and murdered in December 2003, while waiting for a bus to the shopping centre.

Advocacy group the Daniel Morcombe Foundation backed the current Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s proposal to start of a public registry of sex offenders in 2019 but it failed to gather the support it needed from the states, particularly Queensland.

Queensland Premier Annastasia Palasczcuk’s government voted down a motion supporting such a register.

Pauline Hanson has called for pedophiles to be chemically castrated along with tougher penalties for sex offenders 

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Queensland state Labor MP Scott Stewart rubbished the idea, telling Parliament the Australian Institute of Criminology had found ‘public sex offender registers do not reduce recidivism.’

Currently sex offenders must register with the police in all states and territories but only WA has a public registry and its access is limited.

Bruce Morcombe, the father of Daniel, lashed state and territory leaders for being as ‘weak as piss’ in their initial response to the suggestion. 

Under the plan put forward by the Morcombe Foundation a register would publish the names, aliases, geographical area, current photo, list of identifying features of offenders, and local statistics. 

Daniel Morcombe was abducted from a bus stop when he was 13-year-old and murdered

Only repeat or recidivist offenders, or those who have committed hideous crimes, named and shamed.

Britain has such a public registry. 

Victorian state opposition Jason Wood, a former cop, called for Australia to adopt Britain’s model in August.

This would let parents, carers or guardians apply for information about a person who has contact with their child if they are concerned the person poses a risk.

Research shows that around 7 per cent of child sexual offenders are known to reoffend within 10 years.

Incidents involving a family member in a residential setting were the most common.

Police Federation of Australia chief executive Scott Weber was quoted as saying he was ‘100 per cent supportive’.

‘It is scary in this day and age that child sexual offenders can jump from border to border and not be detected,’ he told the Herald Sun. 

‘If we can’t protect our most vulnerable, then we are really failing everyone.’

A Daily Mail Australia mock-up of how an online national child sex offender could look. Above are some of the most well known offenders in Australia – including Daniel Morcombe’s killer Brett Cowan, notorious sex pest Michael Guider, Hey Dad!’s Robert Hughes, predator Robert Fardon and jailed ‘Evil 8’ rapist Ryan Clegg

He said police had privacy and security concerns about the Coalition’s proposal, but welcomed Mr Wood’s suggestion of the British model.

Before the last federal election in May One Nation leader  Pauline Hanson called for pedophiles to be chemically castrated along with tougher penalties for sex offenders.

‘I support chemical castration and tougher penalties for paedophiles, and the establishment of a national database of paedophiles,’ she told Daily Mail Australia. 

‘People are very concerned about their children’s safety and they want strong laws and penalties for those convicted of paedophilia. 

‘For sex offences not involving children, I consider it appropriate for the presiding magistrate or judge to determine the appropriate penalty under the relevant law.’

In a readers’ poll conducted by The Daily Mail an overwhelming 6,800 people out of 7,400 voted ‘yes’ for the procedure to be adopted in an exclusive survey by Daily Mail Australia.