6 sex offenders missing

26 April 2010, 11:36 | Updated: 27 April 2010, 06:28

Oxfordshire police insist they're doing all they can to monitor sex offenders after it was revealed six are missing in the Thames Valley.

The Thames Valley force have told Heart they believe three of them are abroad. The force is currently monitoring 1,000 sex offenders across Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. 

In a statement, Detective Suptintendent Claire Stevens told Heart:

“There are three levels of management which offenders fall into under the MAPPA (Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements) process. There are very few offenders who fall into level three – the very high risk category – and the missing offenders are all level one, those assessed as posing a lower level of risk. 

"Numbers of missing offenders may fluctuate if offenders fail to sign on or notify us of address changes, but we normally track them down quickly.

"Following investigation we believe three of these offenders are abroad and we have notified the relevant agencies in these countries and work is ongoing to locate them. If they return to UK they will arrested because it is an offence not to notify a change in circumstances.

"We can never guarantee 100 per cent that offenders won't re-offend while in the community, however, it is the responsibility of MAPPA agencies to work together to reduce any risk. We feel confident that we have a system which manages sex offenders in a way which provides as many safeguards as possible to reduce any risk they might pose."