Police get powers to hold kerb crawlers

JACK Straw, the Home Secretary, last night confirmed that he would be taking action to crack down on kerb crawlers, writes Anthony Bevins.

As The Independent reported on Monday, he said that he would be giving the police new powers to deal with men who cruise the streets, in their cars, looking for prostitutes.

Under the Criminal Justice Bill to be introduced later this year, kerb crawling would be made an arrestable offence so offenders could be taken back to a police station and charged.

Currently, men can only be summonsed to appear in court, and in most instances they receive a warning or small fine because police have to prove that an offender has been a persistent nuisance.

Mr Straw also confirmed another Independent report, that he plans to introduce a penalty of life imprisonment for people who deliberately infect their partners with Aids.

In an interview published last night, the Home Secretary endorsed the view of the Prime Minister, that men accused of rape would be barred from cross-examining their victims in court; again promised that police officers would be stopped from escaping disciplinary action by taking early retirement on grounds of ill-health; and he said that youth court proceedings were to be reformed.

In line with pledges made on youth crime before the election, he said that where first offenders admitted guilt, they would be dealt with by panels seeking to draw up action plans to deal with their delinquent misconduct.

"I want to move to a much more inquisitorial system based upon principles of restorative justice," Mr Straw said, "rather than the adversarial system - getting away from the theatre of court which so much gets in the way at the moment."