Force insists that everything is being done to track down missing sex offenders
A leading police officer has said everything is being done to track down missing sex offenders after figures showed that more than 50 are at large across the West Midlands.
Police forces serving the region have admitted not knowing the whereabouts of dozens of convicted sex offenders – including two who have been on the run for more than a decade.
However, only four are unaccounted for in the West Mercia force area, which includes Shropshire.
A total of 55 are unaccounted for from West Midlands, Staffordshire and West Mercia force areas.
Official data shows West Mercia Police, which covers Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin, and Warwickshire Police have four at large, including one who has been missing for 11 years.
West Mercia’s head of vulnerability and safeguarding, Detective Superintendent Richard Long, said: “Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police are committed to protecting people from harm – especially the most vulnerable members of our communities.
“Monitoring of convicted sexual offenders is based on a multi-agency approach with all offenders subject to thorough and regular risk assessment.
”Our strategy for finding those people is also regularly reviewed to ensure we are doing everything we can to trace any individual that goes missing.”
The figures include paedophiles and rapists leaving the region with the second highest number of missing sex offenders in England, behind London.
Staffordshire Police has lost track of five, while West Midlands Police has 46 missing, with five going on the run since the start of this year. West Midlands Police is also trying to track down an offender who disappeared in 2006.
An appeal was launched to track down rapist Matthew Shearan, of Telford, who vanished after catching a ferry from Plymouth to France in May 2013.
He was eventually caught when he returned to the UK in 2016 from Portugal.
