Fed: Tsunami disaster exploited by Aussie paedophiles

AAP General News (Australia)
04-16-2005
Fed: Tsunami disaster exploited by Aussie paedophiles

MELBOURNE, April 16 AAP - Up to 20 paedophiles from Australia who tried to travel to
tsunami ravaged countries were stopped under the rules of the new child sex offender register,
it was reported today.

The convicted offenders, whose names are on the recently set up national register,
had to tell police of their plans to travel.

The Australian newspaper today reported that their travel details were sent by police
to Indonesian and Thai authorities who refused them entry.

Child Wise director Bernadette McMenamin told AAP today authorities had known that
paedophiles would be targeting children in countries that had been hit by the tsunami.

She said it was well known that when countries experienced natural disasters or military
crises paedophiles exploited the instability.

"Post-tsunami we expected that a lot of Australian child sex offenders would target
these countries," she said.

Ms McMenamin said she was happy the new child sex offender register had worked but
said more could be done to stop Australian paedophiles from abusing children overseas.

She called for the government to prevent "professional" recidivist paedophiles from
travelling overseas at all.

"We do think that some offenders are too high risk and they shouldn't be allowed to
travel overseas," she said.

"I have checked with the Department of Foreign Affairs and they said they do have the
power to remove passports from people who they believe will harm others overseas."

Child sex offender registers have been set up in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western
Australia and the Northern Territory and are being prepared in the other states and territories.

The state registers are linked to the national register, and police believe there will
be 15,000 paedophiles listed by the end of the year.

AAP apw/arb 7

KEYWORD: PAEDOPHILES

2005 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.