Police forces in England and Wales have admitted losing track of hundreds of sex criminals including rapists, paedophiles, and groomers.
The whereabouts of at least 372 sex offenders are unknown, according to data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, with figures suggesting the problem has been getting worse year on year.
Police recorded a total of 114 convicted sex criminals who went on the run 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.
Just 29 out of 45 police forces responded to the Daily Mail’s Freedom of Information requests, and the majority of those that released figures refused to give details of the offences.
In many of the cases, offenders are thought to have fled overseas, with West Midlands Police announcing last month they believe that 14 out of 46 sex offenders thought to be at large in the region are now living abroad.
In 2015, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said that London’s “diverse multicultural population” meant a large percentage of sex criminals were “either known or believed to be living abroad, having returned to their country of origin”.
Describing the figures as “shocking”, former minister Priti Patel called for “urgent assurances” from the police and Home Office that authorities “are doing everything possible to round sex offenders up”.
Linking the issue to the controversial upcoming prison release of the notorious “black cab” rapist, John Worboys, the Tory MP remarked that “the public will be questioning how we will be kept safe from him when hundreds of offenders have already disappeared”.
Police forces have been struggling with sharp rises in sex crime and violence across the UK, with figures showing the crime wave to be particularly acute in Sadiq Khan’s London.
As Breitbart London reported, thousands of suspected paedophiles and violent offenders who have absconded will be let off the hook after a review of warrants by the Metropolitan Police last month.
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