Activist: Public sex register solves nothing

ACTIVIST Hazel Brown is firm in her belief that the general public does not need to have full and free access to a list of TT’s registered sex offenders. This was her original view when the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2019 was introduced in Parliament in 2019 and later proclaimed last January.

Brown told Newsday on Monday that the names of convicted sex offenders should not be casually publicised, but kept by police for a restricted public access, as is now the case under the act. “We had argued very well for not putting it out there for the public, but it certainly is available if people make pertinent inquiries.

“It is not like something you print in the newspaper. But there is provision for someone to say, ‘This is why we need to know.’ I don’t think that position has changed. There has to be a controlled access to the information,” Brown said.

Newsday asked about the national outcry over recent crimes against women most notably the murder last week of schoolgirl Ashanti Riley, 18, who was found dead in a stream in the forests in Santa Cruz, five days after she went missing after leaving her San Juan home.

“You know better than to take on a national outcry, yes. People who make a national outcry don’t want to do anything about it, they just want to have an outcry,” Brown said.

She said Parliament had finally agreed to a limited access to the offenders register. “You had to show cause as to why this would be of interest to you or your community.” Would it be too bureaucratic to prove your vested interest to apply for access?

“The information while it is not public, is available in the police station. It is available to the police," Brown replied. "So if you have a genuine concern about something looking suspicious, you can go to the police and give a cause as to why you should be given it and you will get it. That is the form of control, instead of just putting it out there. It is available through the police at the police station,” she reiterated.