Release Date: Sunday 15th January 2006
Release Time: Immediate

Contact Details:
Dr Sean Gabb, 07956 472 199, sean@libertarian.co.uk

For other contact and link details, see the foot of this message
Release url: http://www.libertarian.co.uk/news/nr033.htm

"SCRAP SEX OFFENDERS REGISTER", SAYS FREE MARKET AND CIVIL LIBERTIES THINK TANK

The Libertarian Alliance, the radical free market and civil liberties think tank and pressure group, today calls on the British Government to repeal the Sex Offenders Act 1997, as amended by the Sexual Offences Act 2003. These laws require that persons convicted of sex offences involving children should be registered and their names made available to schools.

Dr Sean Gabb, Director of the Libertarian Alliance, comments:

"If people have committed serious acts of non-consensual violence, they should be punished in ways that deter or even prevent them from offending again. But it is wrong for the authorities to put people on lists that may prevent them from working ever again, regardless of other punishments, and that may open them to physical attack by those with access to the relevant electronic databases.

"In general, the paedophile witch-hunt in this country is to be deplored. At the bidding of a coalition that includes man-hating lesbians, sex-obsessed God botherers, empire-building social workers, corrupt and oppressive police officers, and the usual vote-hunting political trash, important procedural and substantive rights have been violated.

"Simple possession of certain pictures has been made a crime. Sexual acts committed on the far side of the world may now be crimes in this country - and can be tried on the basis of the corrupt and interested testimony of foreign prostitutes and police officers. Underage witnesses in child sex cases no longer need be sworn before giving evidence, and do not even have to give it in court. Conviction or caution for any sexual offence involving children has been made, via the registration process, into an unlimited punishment.

"And most of the convictions or cautions under the child sex laws do not involve violent attacks on or gross deception of children. They mostly involve looking at pictures.

"These are not laws to protect children. They are about policing the imagination.

"The sex offenders register does not even work. Unknown but possibly substantial number of convicted offenders continue to work with children. This is due to the incompetence and corruption that has in general reduced British criminal law to a sick joke."

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Note(s) to Editors

Dr Sean Gabb is the Director of the Libertarian Alliance and edits its journal Free Life. His latest book, Smoking, Class and the Legitimation of Power, is available at Amazon. His other books are available from Hampden Press at http://www.hampdenpress.co.uk.

He can be contacted for further comment on 07956 472 199 or by email at sean@libertarian.co.uk

Extended Contact Details:

The Libertarian Alliance is Britain's most radical free market and civil liberties policy institute. It has published over 700 articles, pamphlets and books in support of freedom and against statism in all its forms. These are freely available at http://www.libertarian.co.uk

Our postal address is

The Libertarian Alliance
Suite 35
2 Lansdowne Row
Mayfair
London
W1J 6HL
Tel: 07956 472 199

Associated Organisations

The Libertarian International - http://www.libertarian.to - is a sister organisation to the Libertarian Alliance. Its mission is to coordinate various initiatives in the defence of individual liberty throughout the world.

Sean Gabb's personal website - http://www.seangabb.co.uk - contains about a million words of writings on themes interesting to libertarians and conservatives.

Hampden Press - http://www.hampdenpress.co.uk.- the publishing house of the Libertarian Alliance.

Liberalia - http://www.liberalia.com - maintained by by LA Executive member Christian Michel, Liberalia publishes in-depth papers in French and English on libertarianism and free enterprise. It is a prime source of documentation on these issues for students and scholars.