Case studies
The significance of spectacles
Offender 'A' is a prolific child sex offender who was living in an approved hostel but was recalled to prison following a breach of his licence conditions. After leaving the hostel, staff found a number of pairs of spectacles in his room of varying styles all with plain lenses. While back in prison, officers reported that Offender 'A' was allowing his hair to grow long and had grown a beard. There was an immediate concern that he was going to totally alter his appearance by having his hair cut and beard shaved when he left prison, abscond from his hostel and commit further offences.
Police prison intelligence officers provided photographs of Offender 'A' with short hair and clean shaven and long hair with a beard to all local police officers. At the MAPPA Local Inter agency Risk Management meeting to discuss Offender 'A's impending release the significance of the earlier find of spectacles became clear. Offender 'A' was challenged and informed that any change of appearance had to be reported to the police because of his Sex Offender Registation and that failure to do this would be seen as him planning further offences which would result in a recall to prison again.
On release, Offender 'A' continued to live at the hostel and has not attempted to alter his appearance.
Public protection crosses the Atlantic
Offender 'E' is a sex offender who had groomed a young female. While in prison he started to communicate with a single mother from the USA who has three children all under the age of 14 and monitoring these messages indicated that she was abusing the children following 'code' provided by the offender. Further investigations showed that she intended to come to England to live with him and the information was passed to the authorities in the USA.
Their investigations led them to prosecute her for attempting to obtain a passport for one of her children through forging the child's father's signature, and raised concerns that the woman's young son was being sexually abused.
During the investigation the boy said that he didn't know anything about his mother having a boyfriend in England. However, a letter from the boy was found in Offender 'E's cell which talked about how he was looking forward to moving to England and starting a new life with Offender 'E' as his new father. The US authorities were then able to warn the mother than any attempt to remove the children from the US will result in them being taken into care and proceedings started regarding her ability to safeguard the welfare of all her children.