Fury as cops lose track of more than 500 sex offenders they should be monitoring – including rapists and paedophiles
POLICE have lost track of more than 500 registered sex offenders they should be monitoring — including rapists and paedophiles.
Scores are missing, despite cops having to log locations of all convicted sex criminals.
But a roll call of shame reveals 503 are living freely among the public, or have managed to flee Britain.
London’s Met admitted it could not track 228 — the most of any UK force.
West Midlands Police said that it didn’t know the status of 60 while Greater Manchester has failed to locate 32 offenders.
Just 27 of 43 forces released figures after a Freedom of Information request by The Sun on Sunday — meaning the numbers could be even higher.
Michaela-Clare Addison of crime charity Victim Support slammed the “failure in public safety”.
She said: “The sex offenders register is an important form of justice for many victim-survivors.
“There must be robust and thorough scrutiny of the register at all times.
“That means careful monitoring of who is added and removed.”
The National Police Chiefs’ Council said the missing sex offenders “form only a very small proportion of the overall total”.
A spokesman said all the cases were investigated.