Our Children Target for pedophiles

IT IS highly disturbing to find documented proof that our children are unwittingly being used as test subjects for the treatment of pedophiles.

The Sunday Herald Sun has uncovered a document which reveals authorities deliberately expose our children to intellectually disabled pedophiles in shopping malls and supermarkets.

The Disability Forensic Assessment and Treatment Service (DFATS) document records the behaviour of pedophiles when they encounter children on these trips. It describes children as "targets".

This newspaper revealed two weeks ago that sex offenders were intentionally taken to public places frequented by groups of children.

The escorted trips were used to establish whether pedophiles were still a danger to children, or whether they could be released back into society.

What a dangerous game this is. It places our children in danger, both emotionally and physically.

Hetty Johnston, founder of Bravehearts, said it was "frightening" for a program to have children in the company of known pedophiles.

"They're dangerous men, they're always going to be dangerous to children and you don't need to expose them to children to know that," she said.

The document that lists the "results" of the pedophiles' trips out refers to children as "target groups". What a horrifying description.

The pedophiles in the program have been charged with sex offences but deemed to be intellectually disabled. Instead of prison, they undergo treatment in a secure centre in Fairfield or live in a halfway house.

They are escorted on regular trips to shops, libraries, cinemas and football matches.

The pedophiles allowed out include a man who faced 12 charges of sexually assaulting children. On a recent trip to a supermarket he reached out for a little girl in a checkout queue and his support worker had to intervene.

After the Sunday Herald Sun's revelation of the breach, Mental Health Minister Lisa Neville ordered DFATS to double its security of the men when they were in public places.

It is not good enough.

These trips must be stopped immediately. Our precious children are not "targets" or guinea pigs to be used in some bizarre experiment to discover whether pedophiles are still dangerous.

The attempted rehabilitation of pedophiles should not come at the expense of our children.

Herald Sun, Sunday 22 Nov 2009