More than 1,500 sex offenders living in this region
More than 1,500 sex offenders are living in the area covered by West Mercia and Dyfed-Powys police forces, new figures reveal
The number of offenders on an official register in Dyfed-Powys remains at more than 600, according to new figures.
Government figures have shown that back in the year 2009/10, the number of offenders stood at just 432 in the region. The figure has risen to 613 last year, although that is a drop on the year 2015/16, when there was 638 offenders in the force area.
In West Mercia Police's force area, the number on the register has dropped from the figure it was at eight years ago.
In 2009/10, there were 1,051 people in the sex offenders register, and that climbed steadily to a high of 1,505 in the year 2015/16. However last year, it had dropped by almost 400, back down to 1,161.
Last week police forces across the UK and the Home Office were being urged to do everything they can to keep track of runaway offenders after their numbers quadrupled nationally in two years.
The whereabouts of at least 372 sex criminals including rapists, paedophiles and groomers are unknown, according to data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, with figures suggesting the problem has been getting worse year on year.
Forces recorded a total of 114 convicted sex offenders whose whereabouts are no longer known in 2017 – a number more than twice the 2016 figure of 53, which marked a more than doubling of the 25 offenders that forces lost track of in 2015.
Already this year, 15 convicted sex offenders have disappeared, with officers unable to track them down as of last month.
At least 13 of those missing have been wanted for more than a decade, and at least one has avoided arrest since 2005.
In many of the cases, offenders are thought to have fled overseas, with West Midlands Police announcing last month it believes that 14 out of the region's 46 sex offenders thought to be at large are now living abroad.
In London, the figures reveal the Metropolitan Police Service is searching for at least 227 sex offenders. Eleven have disappeared this year and 79 in 2017 – nearly double the year before at 38.
Describing the figures as 'shocking', former International Development Secretary Priti Patel called for 'urgent assurances', from the policing and the Government that they were 'doing everything possible to round up' sex offenders.
