A report on the BBC website says that Education Secretary Alan Johnson has rejected claims by a top police officer that policy on paedophiles is being driven by a tabloid newspaper campaign. Dyfed-Powys Chief Constable Terry Grange said he was extremely concerned the Home Office had "surrendered" power over policy to the News of the World.The paper says parents have a right to know where paedophiles are living.
Mr Grange, the child protection spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers, told BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight that the Home Office was "slowly but surely acceding to" the paper's requests "and it is wrong to do so". As part of the Megan's Law system, a number of states list offenders' details on the internet, allowing parents to enter their zip code (post code) or a name, to check if anyone on the register has moved in nearby. But Mr Grange told BBC News that this year alone in the US five people had been murdered "by people who have accessed the sex offenders register, gone to their houses and killed them." He accused the Home Office of responding to pressure from the News of the World, allowing the newspaper to dictate a shift in government policy. "This government has accepted the principle that they are prepared to be blackmailed," he said. Johnson says ministers do not react to tabloid campaigns
A News of the World spokesman said: "A newspaper's role is to represent readers and that is precisely what News of the World is doing with Sarah's Law, and will continue to do so."
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