Mother welcomes Sarah's Law roll-out

The mother of murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne has welcomed the introduction of the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme, known as Sarah’s Law, which is set to be introduced throughout the country.

The scheme, which allows parents to find out whether someone working with children is a convicted paedophile, was trialled in four police forces in 2008 and now other forces have adopted the move and it is anticipated that by the end of March next year every police force in the country will operate it.

The Sussex force has just begun operating the scheme and several others are expected to join this autumn. Sarah Payne was killed by convicted paedophile Roy Whiting in July 2000 and her mother, Sara, has led a high-profile campaign to call for an equivalent to a scheme already running in the United States, where convicted paedophiles are actively publicised.

Ms Payne said: “We welcome Sussex on board and hope that they find this to be another welcome tool in the child protection box. We look forward to Sarah’s Law being national and then it won’t matter where you live, you will be able to have access to the scheme.”