“WE have had sex offenders who have been convicted of offences and gone on to commit other offences – that will always happen but the idea behind their management is to reduce that risk and safeguard the public.”

These are the words of Detective Inspector Nigel Wenham who is responsible for managing sex offenders in Warrington and Halton on the sex offenders’ register.

In law, anyone convicted of a sexual crime must sign the register.

The length of sentence offenders receive determines how long they sign on for and terms of their requirement varies from two years to life.

He said: “At the moment in Halton and Warrington we have 304 registered sex offenders and a number of them will be in prison.

“Around 223 actually live in the community. A team of dedicated sex liaison officers (DSLO) have responsibility for managing these individuals and ensuring they are complying with the requirements of the sex offenders’ register and monitoring and assessing the risk management plans in relation to them.”

The register places a number of requirements on offenders who must re-register with their name and address every 12 months.

They must also notify other residents where they are living after seven days in the area and inform authorities if they are travelling out of the country.

DI Wenham added: “We work with other agencies through MAPPA (Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangement) to manage the risk including probation, housing, mental health services, prison service, children’s social care and adult services.

“The range of offences committed by these offenders is wide ranging and include indecent exposure, sexual offences with children, intrafamilial sexual offences, possession of indecent images, domestic-related and stranger rapes – consequently they present different levels of risk.

“The risk offenders present ranges from very low to very high and we tailor the management plans around the level we perceive they pose at that time and that can be dynamic.

“We manage offenders by assessing things such as looking at the static factors in their life , for example if they are married and in stable accommodation.

“We look at factors that have movement within their lives, which may indicate increased risk such as alcohol-related issues, drug misuse or access or proximity to victims, they may also have a low level mental illness or personality disorder.”

Released offenders are also subject to various restrictions such as being forbidden from working with children and sex offender prevention orders (SOPO).

DI Wenham added: “We have a number of individuals subject to SOPOs and they are very draconian control measures.

“A SOPO is a very powerful piece of legislation and allows us to put specific controls and prohibitions on someone’s movements and behaviour such as not loitering within 200 metres of any park.

“SOPOs are specific to their crimes so someone with offences of downloading or distributing child pornography can’t have access to a computer at their home address or access to any photographic or digital image recording equipment in a public place.

“Breaches of SOPOs carry five years’ imprisonment. Some offenders are also on licence being managed by probation with licence conditions or through the criminal justice liaison teams and mental health service.”