Ministers rule out emulating America's hardline 'Megan's Law'

The introduction of a British version of "Megan's Law", giving communities the automatic right to know about paedophiles living locally, has been ruled out by the Government. Parents will only have the right to information about convicted sex offenders in their neighbourhoods in specific circumstances, such as when a single mother has suspicions about a new partner.

Home Office ministers have studied the operation of the American law, which provides the public with details of the history and the whereabouts of high-risk offenders.

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Critics have warned that it encourages vigilantism and could drive paedophiles underground.

The Home Office yesterday said it wanted to focus its attention on potential child sexual abuse in the home, which accounted for the vast majority of instances of paedophilia.

Single mothers will be able to ask whether a new partner or carer who spends time alone with a youngster has child sex convictions. It is recognised that some paedophiles target lone parents in order to gain access to children.

The system would build on existing laws that allow police to approach and warn a woman who has begun a relationship with a known paedophile.

But suggestions that a member of the public will, for example, be able to ask whether a sex offender lives on a child's route to school are being played down by the Home Office.

The conclusions of the Home Office's child sex offender review is expected to be published next month.

It will announce three pilot schemes, which will examine who can ask for a check to be done on a suspected paedophile. Only public agencies, such as the police, and employers who hire people to work with children can currently access the database containing records of sex offenders.

The Government has concluded that some citizens in tightly controlled circumstances - such as single mothers with new partners - will be able to request that a check is carried out.

Michelle Elliott, the director of the Kidscape children's charity, welcomed the decision not to give wider access to paedophiles' identities.

"I never supported that - it would be the road to ruin. It would bring vigilantism and did not consider how to decide which paedophiles should be named because they were more dangerous than others," she said. Martin Narey, chief executive of the chrity Barnardo's, said that allowing parents widespread information about sex offenders in their area would be "very bad news".

He warned that sex offenders could be driven underground, away from the supervision of trained probation officers. He said: "This will put children in danger. Our only concern is children and this will put children's lives in danger."

Megan's Law commemorates a seven-year-old American girl Megan Kanka, who was raped and murdered by a paedophile.

The child was strangled and her body stuffed in a plastic toy chest by her neighbour Jesse Timmendequas in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, in 1994.

The murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne by the paedophile Roy Whiting in July 2000 prompted a nationwide campaign for similar legislation to be introduced in Britain, known as "Sarah's Law".

The system now being proposed would arguably have had no effect on the Sarah Payne case, as she was grabbed by a stranger, and is a far cry from the "Sarah's Law" originally envisaged by campaigners.

The case against

* Both police and campaigners in the US say "Megan's Law" has driven sex offenders underground. It was reported last year that a quarter of Iowa's registered offenders were unaccounted for. Don Vrotsos, of the Dubuque County Sheriff's Office in Iowa, said offenders had been driven out of the city and were providing false information.

* At least four people have been killed in the eight years since states were required to make details available. William Elliott, 19, who was convicted of having sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend, was killed by a man who had travelled from Canada with a list of 29 convicted sex offenders in his pocket. Mr Elliott's mother, Shirley Turner, said: "My son was not a paedophile. He shouldn't have been labelled like that."

* A study carried out in Florida and published in 2005 in the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice found that a third of convicted male sex offenders sampled had experienced "dire events" as a result of having their identities published. While 5 per cent had suffered injuries, 33 per cent said they had typically undergone the "loss of a job or a home, threats of harassment or property damage".