In a number of issues at the beginning of August, the News of the World published the names, photographs, and home addresses of 80 individuals who have served prison time for sexual assaults on children. To gain support for this move it seized on the abduction and murder in July of an eight-year-old girl, Sarah Payne.

The News of the World, a right-wing paper owned by magnate Rupert Murdoch, is demanding a "national register of sex offenders" be made public. Three years ago it promoted a national petition launched by a reactionary organization called People Power in favor of a law--a British version of the U.S. measures known as "Megan's Law"--that would provide for a public register; the petition gained 300,000 signatures

In launching its current campaign the News of the World anticipated that, as in the past, vigilante street actions would swiftly follow. It sanctimoniously declared, "Our campaign will be counterproductive if it provokes any display of animosity to those we name." At the time of the newspaper's promotion of the People Power petition, vigilante action against alleged former sex offenders took place in Liverpool, Aberdeen, and north Wales.  
 
Vigilante attacks
In the midst of the paper's latest campaign, mobs of up to 300 people took to the streets over a number of days and nights in early August in working-class areas of Portsmouth and Plymouth. Cars were overturned and set on fire. Houses of people alleged to have been previously convicted of sex offenses were besieged, bricked, and in at least one case set on fire.

The press reported that a 29-year-old Asian man was beaten by a gang of vigilantes after he was seen talking to children. Demonstrators chanted, "Sex crime, sex crime, sex crime--hang them, hang them, hang them!" One demonstrator was quoted as saying, "Why don't they just bang them up in the Maze?" The Maze is the prison in Northern Ireland where the bulk of Irish political prisoners were incarcerated.

In Oldham, near Manchester, a man who faced police charges for sex offenses was said by his attorney to have killed himself after neighbors hounded him from his home.

A fascist outfit called the National Democrats has been active around this issue, establishing a web site called Paedophile Action. It demands capital punishment for the most serious sex offenses and the establishment of concentration camps for others convicted of serious offenses or a second minor offense. Its paper, the Flag, reported favorably on a People Power meeting and demonstration in January 1998 at which Curtis Sliwa, leader of the U.S. pro-cop vigilante group Guardian Angels, was present. According to Mike Whine of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the National Democrats organized "anti-pedophile" demonstrations two years ago.

The national sex offenders register was established in September 1997 under the Sex Offenders Act, enacted by the last Tory government in March of that year with bipartisan support. All convicted offenders aged 10 and over are obliged to register. This includes adults convicted of unlawful consensual sex acts and young people involved in underage sex in violation of age-of-consent laws. The length of time they remain on the register depends on the severity of the sentence; an adult given a non-prison sentence would have to stay on the register for five years.

After its election in May 1997, the Labour Party government moved to strengthen the Sex Offenders Act, again with bipartisan support, introducing among other measures mandatory life prison sentences for people convicted under the act for a "second serious offense." The national register is held by police, who have the power to inform schools and members of the public about convicted child sex offenders living in their area.

Recently the Greater Manchester police used similar powers to pass the names, ages, and addresses of eight men convicted under the Public Order Act for allegedly approaching prostitutes on the street. This information, along with photographs, was published August 23 in the Manchester Evening News, against the strong wishes of those concerned.  
 
Ruling-class debate on how far to push
The News of the World campaign and resulting street actions have prompted a contradictory response inside ruling circles. The pro-Tory right-wing Daily Telegraph denounced the News of the World for the uncontrolled forces its campaign unleashed. "It is astounding that mob rule, violent attacks, arson and self-confessed 'intimidation,' directly incited by a newspaper... should not be condemned," the editors of the Telegraph opined in an August 10 editorial.

The editorial also targeted Sydney Rapson, a Labour member of Parliament (MP) from Portsmouth North, for refusing to condemn the street gangs. Referring to some of the rightist slogans raised at the street actions, Rapson said, "I don't agree that we should burn or castrate them but we have to concede some ground to reduce the tension.... I'm angry that pedophiles are placed in areas where there are large numbers of children. While it is sad that they have been ousted in such a violent way, there could be ways of making these places safer."

Rapson went on to organize a meeting between representatives of the vigilantes and the local council in an attempt to resolve their grievances. Labour MP Robin Corbett, chair of the parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee, called for the News of the World to be prosecuted.

The police have also publicly divided over the issue. Anthony Butler, chief constable of Gloucestershire and spokesperson on child protection issues for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said, "We have made a major step forward in the objective of improving the safety of children. I give my support to the News of the World." Later a spokesperson for the group said that Butler had been misunderstood.

The cop outfit was among a number of organizations, including the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and the Association of Chief Officers of Probation, who met with News of the World executives to push for an end to publishing names, addresses, and photos.

The paper did so in face of opposition from capitalist political figures and other big-business media who at the same time favor further strengthening of antidemocratic laws and the police. The Labour government's deputy prime minister, John Prescott, welcomed a proposal from Tory party leader William Hague that all convicted sex offenders face mandatory life sentences; that those released be electronically tagged indefinitely and supervised longer than the current 10-year maximum. "If you can get the consensus between political parties in the review of this legislation, that would be very welcome," Prescott said. "It sets a far different atmosphere to that we've seen down in Portsmouth."

John Wadham, legal director of a civil liberties pressure group, Liberty, called for the national register to be trimmed in the face of the new Human Rights Act, which reportedly incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights into British law from October 2. The act includes a conditional provision on the right to privacy. Removing some of the names will assist the police, Wadham said, accepting the basic framework of the reactionary campaign. "It is really an opportunity to make the register better focused on pedophiles and sex offenders who are a real danger to the public."  
 
 
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