AG brings sex offenders registry law to Senate

AT the click of a mouse, you will soon be able to check online to see if your neighbour is a sexual pervert.

You may also check at your local police station. This is propsed by the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill 2019 laid in the Senate on Tuesday by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi.

The bill says the Commissioner of Police (CoP), currently Gary Griffith, will have “control and custody” of the list and maintain and update it.

It stipulates that the CoP “shall ensure that the following information in relation to each registered sex offender is made accessible to the public via a website designated for that purpose: (a) name, former names and aliases; (b) date of birth; (c) photograph; (d) main address or secondary address; and (e) convictions of registrable offences.”

The register is retroactive to include offenders who committed sex-crimes back to 2000, and applies to offences committed not only in TT but also overseas.

While different countries may have different laws on sexual offences, under this bill TT nationals will be judged in line with TT laws for any acts done abroad. An offender on the register must report to his local police station and, for offences against a child, must also report to the chief immigration officer.

Both the police and immigration division must be notified of any plans by the offender to travel abroad. The whole process begins upon his conviction, the bill says.

“The Court shall make an order requiring the person to report to a police station for the purposes of registering as a registered sex offender upon the completion of his sentence.”

An offender must report to the police for a specified period equal to or exceeding the length of the prison sentence he had received. Those found guilty but given no sentence must report for one year, while those getting a non-custodial sentence must report for two years. However, after the expiration of the reporting period, his/her name will be expunged from the online register of offenders.

At least four months before an offender’s release from prison or psychiatric hospital, the institution’s head must notifying the CoP who, in turn, must send an officer to interview them at least two months before discharge. The offender must report to their local police station within specified time limits of arriving among the general population depending on their circumstances.

An offender who breaches their reporting requirement faces a fine of $150,000 and imprisonment of 15 years.

In addition to the five items specified on the public register in the bill, a schedule to the bill lists 27 personal details, presumably for a second register only for the police and not for public display. These extra details include work place, next of kin, names and ages of children in residence, medical history including communicable diseases, finger prints and DNA profile.

Police Service records indicate that on average about 600 people are victims of sexual crimes each year in TT, almost two each day. In the six years from 2013 to 2018, some 3,757 people were victims of rape, incest and sexual offences. Police data also shows that fewer than half of those reported offences were ever solved, over that period totaling 1,541 cases.

Anti-violence advocate Diana Mahabir-Wyatt told Newsday the police already had a private registry of sex offenders they shared with law-courts before sentencing was done. However, she had deep concerns as to whether the general public should have access, noting the TT Constitution protected people’s human rights including privacy.

She also cautioned that some people’s convictions were later overturned by DNA evidence. However, asked to balance an offender’s right to privacy against a neighbour’s right to know based upon the chances that he would re-offend, she said foreign data showed sex offenders had one of the highest rates of recidivism, but was unsure about TT data.

On Tuesday, the AG told the Senate some 2,915 victims of sexual assault had, to date, been waiting more than ten years for their case to start in court, including 24 victims who have been waiting 14 years.