Plenty of people will share the concerns felt by Bradford North MP Terry Rooney about lenient and inconsistent sentencing of paedophiles. There seems to many to be neither common sense nor justice in putting a man on probation for two years for three offences of gross indecency against young children on condition that he attends counselling sessions; or in jailing a paedophile to only three-and-a-half years for five offences against young boys despite him having previous convictions for earlier, identical offences.

Time and again it has been demonstrated that people who sexually abuse children are seldom "cured" by a short spell in prison or a course of therapy and can be driven to do the same thing again.

The recent Bradford judgements cited above are part of the reason why Mr Rooney has campaigned for tougher sentences. He - and a great many worried parents - must be reassured to have learned from Home Secretary Jack Straw of the proposed new measures being looked at to afford better protection to children.

Particularly encouraging is the prospect of new, indeterminate detention powers for dangerous offenders with severe personality disorders - the sort of people who, at present, have to be released into the community once their sentence is over.

Even those local courts which try to ensure that sex abusers are kept off the streets for as long as possible find their powers limited by national laws. The measures outlined by Mr Straw will make their work a great deal easier, but they need to be accompanied by strict guidelines to remove discrepancies in sentencing from court to court and city to city.

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