Action urged on paedophiles of tomorrow

THE AUTHOR of the biggest ever Home Office study into child abuse has warned that urgent action must be taken to prevent a hard core of teenage sex offenders from becoming the next generation of untreatable predatory paedophiles.

The 200-page report into the effectiveness of treatment programmes for child abusers, reveals that 40 per cent of "highly deviant" recidivist paedophiles do not respond to treatment.

Psychologists believe they have become so entrenched in their behaviour that they may never learn to control their urges or to accept that what they are doing is wrong.

Richard Beckett, the author of the report which is due to be published later this month, told the Independent on Sunday the most serious paedophiles could only be treated if they were picked out at a young age.

He said: "We need to identify them and really put work into them so we don't see them for the first time at the age of 40 when they are unsalvageable."

Mr Beckett, a forensic psychologist at the Oxford Forensic Service, said young men under 21 carried out one third of sexual assaults in Britain.

"There is a small minority of them that are the recidivist paedophiles of the future. Most of these people start offending in adolescence," he said.

Researchers have built up sufficient expertise to be able to identify the recidivist paedophile from a series of common characteristics.

A man who has failed to form any serious adult sexual relationships, and has a criminal record which includes at least four non-sexual offences and two sexual ones, is reckoned to have at least a 40 per cent likelihood of repeat attacks.

Mr Beckett said: "We are pretty sophisticated now at identifying the recidivist paedophiles, but what we are not able to do is recognise the younger ones who are just starting off and will become fixated."

Because of the concerns, a pioneering sex offenders project in Oxfordshire, backed by the Home Office, is to begin work with 11 to 18-year-olds who display what are termed "sexually concerning behaviours".

This may include indecent exposure, voyeurism, obsession with pornography, or rape.

Trudi Annetts, social worker with the Thames Valley Project, said: "The thinking is that early intervention gives more capacity for change. If they learn that their behaviour is wrong they may well not develop into more serious behaviour as adults."

The Home Office research, which was carried out by a team of psychologists based in Oxford, Birmingham and Wales, investigated the treatment of child abusers being held in six prisons.

Nearly 86 per cent of those who had committed less serious offences and accepted the harm done to their victims, responded to the treatment and had a reduced risk of re-offending. But 40 per cent of the "highly deviant" paedophiles studied failed to respond in any way to treatment.