Thousands of sex offenders prosecuted for changing personal details without telling police

Published

2 years ago

March 2, 2023

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Thousands of sex offenders are changing their details without notifying police, new figures reveal, as campaigners call for an end to a “loophole that is making a mockery of the legal system”.

Between January 2019 and June 2022, there have been almost 12,000 prosecutions made against people on the sex offence register who have failed to tell authorities about a change in their personal information, such as name and location, despite a legal requirement to do so.

The figures – obtained through a Freedom of Information (FOI) Request by The Safeguarding Alliance and shared exclusively with Sky News – are “just the tip of the iceberg in this epidemic” and do not reflect those who have not been caught, campaigners say.

Labour MP Sarah Champion, who led a debate in parliament on Thursday about tightening the laws, told Sky News: “By changing their name that makes a lot of the schemes that we have around safeguarding completely redundant.

“For example women who’ve experienced domestic violence, they can call up, check the name of their new partner against that (sex offence) register. If they’ve got a different name, that’s not going to flag those dangers.”

Ms Champion said the process of changing a name for a sex offender is “so simple to do”.

“You can do it online. I’ve found offenders that have done it in prison. I’ve found offenders that do it just before they get charged to keep their birth name protected.”

She said a new name allows criminals to get a new driving licence and passport and with those documents “you can then get a clean DBS check in that new name”.

“And we’ve found examples of offenders that have done that. And then have gone on to re-offend almost without any form of detection being available,” she said.

The MP for Rotherham said police already have tools to put markers on driving licences and passports electronically which could be used to flag attempts by sex offenders to change their details.

However, she claimed the Home Office have said it could only be applied in the most extreme circumstances because of cost.

Ms Champion said: “What price is put on protecting a child or a vulnerable person from a sexual offender? What price is the consequence of not doing that? Colossal. I would imagine it’s going to be a couple of hundred pounds each time they do the check.”

Asked if sex offenders should be stopped from changing their name in the first place, Ms Champion said “you still then have the same problem of trying to enforce it”.

“The problem we have at the moment is all of the onus is onto the sex offender to tell the police if they change their name, if they change their location, if they go abroad, and by nature, they’re not,” she said.

She said sex offenders are “disappearing” after changing their details and “the government can’t just sit on its hands on this. It needs to put proper protections in place”.

Can sex offenders legally change their name?

Data previously obtained by Sky News shows more than 900 sex offenders have disappeared off the police radar with many thought to have disguised their identities by changing their names and not telling officers.

From January 2017 to December 2019, 1,349 registered sex offenders notified a name change – but 913 were reported missing during the same time.

Case study: How easily can sex offenders change their name?

A deed poll process takes 15 minutes online and costs £42.44.

Campaigners are warning that while it is an offence for people on the sex offenders register to change their names without telling officials, that’s not incentive enough for them not to do it – as it’s easy to do and common practice.

A rapist called Terry Price conducted a string of sexual offences over three decades and has changed his name five times in an effort to cover up his recurring pattern of behaviour.

Della Wright, who was abused by Price as a child, recently found the courage to report the crimes – but she discovered her attacker was called Robert McEwan (also a sex offender).

Ahead of his trial in 2016, her attacker changed his name again to Mr Mac, so he was unable to enter a plea because the charges were against Robert McEwan. The process was disrupted for several weeks and Ms Wright believes he did it in the hope she would lose her nerve.

Ms Wright has waived her right to anonymity to highlight this issue in the hope that the laws will change to make it impossible for sex offenders to change their identities.

While sex offenders who fail to notify face up to five years in prison, campaigners say that is not enough of an incentive to stop them.

Ms Champion and the Safeguarding Alliance want a tagging system placed on the passport and/or driving licence on all registered sex offenders to stop them from using official documents as a way to evade justice.

They are also calling for the onus to be put on authorities who manage violent or sexual offenders to check if criminals have changed their details.

The government carried out a review of the issue in 2021 but the findings have not been made public.

Government ‘carefully considering’ review findings

Speaking in the Commons on Thursday, Home Office minister Sarah Dines said she was “carefully considering the findings”, stressing some of the content is “very sensitive”.

She suggested there are several tools to help the government manage “the risk” of sex offenders, but added: “I do accept and concede that there is always more work to be done.”

Ms Dines also faced pressure to take action from Conservative MP Mark Fletcher, who wants to make a new law to stop sex offenders from changing their identities.

The MP for Bolsover also said it is “unacceptable” and a “tremendous slap in the face” for victims for the government not to publish a review into the issue, and it feels like “we are prioritising the rights of sexual offenders over the rights of the general public”.

Miss Dines said: “As I’ve made clear, public protection and safety is our number one priority and we’re committed to ensure that the police and other agencies have more and better tools to assist them to more effectively manage registered sex offenders.

“So in a nutshell, a lot has been done but there is more to do. We need more joined-up systems and I’m going to try and do my little bit in my short time to address these issues.”

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Israel to continue with Gaza City offensive despite talks to free Hamas hostages

Published

6 hours ago

August 22, 2025

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Israel to continue with Gaza City offensive despite talks to free Hamas hostages

Israel will resume negotiations with Hamas for the release of all hostages captured during the October 7 attack, Benjamin Netanyahu has said – but its military will continue its Gaza City offensive despite international outcry.

The remarks from Israel’s prime minister are the first since Hamas agreed to a temporary ceasefire proposal.

Talks will also be with a view to ending the war, but Mr Netanyahu said it must be on “terms acceptable to Israel”.

In the meantime, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have begun calling medics and international organisations in northern Gaza to encourage them to evacuate to the south ahead of the expanded operation in Gaza City.

Many of Israel’s closest allies have urged the government to reconsider. Some Israelis fear it could doom the remaining 20 or so living hostages taken by Hamas-led militants in the 7 October 2023 attack which ignited the war.

Israel plans to call up 60,000 reservists and extend the service of 20,000 more.

Speaking to soldiers near Israel’s border with Gaza, Mr Netanyahu said he was still set on approving plans for defeating Hamas and capturing Gaza City.

“At the same time I have issued instructions to begin immediate negotiations for the release of all our hostages and an end to the war on terms acceptable to Israel,” he said.

“These two things – defeating Hamas and releasing all our hostages – go hand in hand,” he added.

The latest ceasefire proposal drawn up by Egypt and Qatar is almost identical to an earlier one that Israel accepted before the talks stalled last month.

The proposal would include the release of some hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a pullback of Israeli forces and negotiations over a lasting ceasefire.

‘Don’t tell us where to build’

Israeli strikes killed at least 36 Palestinians across Gaza on Thursday, according to local hospitals, including at a tent camp in Deir al-Balah.

Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, was summoned to the Foreign Office in response to a controversial West Bank settlement plan which has been given final approval.

The project, known as the E1 settlement, would effectively cut off the occupied West Bank from East Jerusalem and divide the territory in two.

The UK and 21 international partners have released a statement to condemn the decision “in the strongest terms” calling it “a flagrant breach of international law” and “critically undermining a two-state solution”.

Ms Hotovely gave Sky News her response to the meeting: “I said we wouldn’t tell the British where to build in London. Don’t tell us where to build in Jerusalem, our capital. We see E1 as part of Greater Jerusalem.”

UK warns of ‘horrifying starvation’

The UK has also responded to comments from the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA that famine in Gaza is “deliberate” and being used as an “instrument of war”.

Minister for the Middle East, Hamish Falconer, has called for a “comprehensive [peace] plan to end this misery and get to a long-term settlement”.

“Israel must immediately and permanently lift all barriers preventing aid reaching the people of Gaza to prevent the horrifying starvation in the Strip continuing,” he added.

Demand for Gaza media access

The Media Freedom Coalition, which includes the UK and 50 other countries, has called on Israel to allow foreign media access into Gaza.

In a joint statement, the coalition, which is a partnership of countries working to defend media freedom, urged Israel to “allow immediate independent foreign media access” and “afford protection for journalists operating in Gaza”.

They said this was in light of the “unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza”.

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Israel maintains pressure on Gaza City as ‘first stages of attack begin’

Published

9 hours ago

August 21, 2025

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Gaza City residents say Israel carried out intense overnight bombardments as it prepares a controversial offensive to take control of the area.

Sixty-thousand reservists are being called up after Benjamin Netanyahu‘s security cabinet approved the plan earlier this month.

UN chief Antonio Guterres has warned of more “death and destruction” if Israel tries to seize the city, while France’s Emmanuel Macron said it would be a “disaster” that would lead to “permanent war”.

Live – UN warns of ‘forcible transfer’ as forces advance on Gaza City

Hundreds of thousands of people could end up being forcibly displaced – a potential war crime, according to the UN’s human rights office.

Gaza’s health ministry said at least 70 people had been killed in Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours, including eight people in a house in the Sabra suburb of Gaza City.

Israel currently controls about 75% of the Gaza Strip, but Prime Minister Netanyahu has said Israel must take Gaza City to “finish the job” and defeat Hamas.

Mr Netanyahu and his ministers are due to meet on Thursday to discuss the plans, according to Israeli media.

Military spokesperson Effie Defrin said earlier that “preliminary operations and the first stages of the attack” had begun – with troops operating on the outskirts of Gaza City.

Israel has said it will order evacuation notices before troops move in but satellite images show thousands of people have already left.

Residents said shelling has intensified in the Sabra and Tuffah neighbourhoods and that those fleeing have gone to coastal shelters or to central and southern parts of the Strip.

The decision to stay or leave is an agonising choice for many.

“We are facing a bitter-bitter situation, to die at home or leave and die somewhere else, as long as this war continues, survival is uncertain,” said father of seven Rabah Abu Elias.

“In the news, they speak about a possible truce, on the ground, we only hear explosions and see deaths. To leave Gaza City or not isn’t an easy decision to make,”

Most of the Israeli reservists being summoned are not expected to be in a frontline combat role and the call-up is set to take a while.

The window could give mediators more time to convince Israel to accept a temporary ceasefire.

Hamas has already agreed to the proposal – envisaging 10 living hostages and 18 bodies being released in return for a 60-day truce and the freedom of about 200 Palestinian prisoners.

Israel hasn’t officially responded, but insists it wants all 50 remaining hostages released at once. Only 20 of them are still believed to be alive.

The war started nearly two years ago when a Hamas terror attack killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped around 250.

More than 62,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

The figure doesn’t break down how many were Hamas members, but it says women and children make up more than half.

Two more people also died of starvation and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, the ministry said on Thursday, taking the total to 271, including 112 children.

COGAT, the body controlling aid into Gaza, said 250 aid trucks entered on Wednesday, with 154 pallets air-dropped.

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Police in Kenya begin exhuming shallow graves of suspected cult victims

Published

11 hours ago

August 21, 2025

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Police in Kenya begin exhuming shallow graves of suspected cult victims

Police, pathologists and grave diggers have started the exhumation of 27 shallow graves in Kenya’s Kilifi County.

The remains are believed to be of followers of a deadly cult in Chakama Ranch, a part of the Shakahola Forest.

In 2023, more than 400 mass graves were discovered in the same forest, all members of controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie’s church. They were encouraged to starve themselves to death to get into heaven.

It remains one of the world’s worst cult-related tragedies. Mackenzie is still in jail and faces numerous charges of terrorism, child torture and murder.

The remote forest has again been turned into a crime scene.

Morticians were seen carrying out body bag after body bag, some containing the remains of children believed to have been starved to death.

State pathologist Dr Richard Njoroge said this is just the beginning, as investigators expect to find many more bodies: “Today we managed to exhume six.

“Of the six graves, we found five bodies and then also around that area we found ten different scattered body parts, scattered in different places on the surface.”

Eleven suspects have already been arrested in connection with these deaths and will appear in court on Friday.

Police are investigating links to Mackenzie and members of his Good News International Church.

At the exhumation today, pathologists said they were still working to identify the bodies of those exhumed from Mackenzie’s cult.

“We had 453 at the closure of that exercise, I think, we released around 33 or 34 last time. So, from there are 419 remaining,” Dr Njoroge explained.

Police have encouraged families in the area with missing loved ones to come forward and provide their DNA samples, as efforts to identify the dead continue.

Kenya is grappling with a rise in religious extremism and many churches operating informally.

Parliament passed several preliminary bills aimed at regulating religious organisations last year, but implementation has stalled after resistance from church leaders.