Public Demands GPS Tracking System For High-Risk Sex Offenders After Pedophile Attacks Grandmother Just Days After Being Released From Prison
The public is urging the Scottish Government to consider a GPS tracking system for the country’s most dangerous sex offenders, after an independent review of the Ryan Yates case has highlighted a number of failings by the public bodies responsible for monitoring the violent criminal.
Just days after being freed from prison, one of Scotland’s most dangerous sex offenders Ryan Yates tried to murder a grandmother in Aberdeen park, so he could abduct and rape her two young granddaughters. Yates stabbed his 60-year-old victim with a knife but she managed to fend him off as the children ran from the scene.
Yates was arrested shortly after the attack. SGTV News reported Yates later told police he had gone to the Bridge of Don park “looking to find some children to have sex with”.
After a review of the Yates case, many people are in favor of the government using a GPS tracking system to monitor “high risk offenders” like Yates who are released into the community.
Report writers paid tribute to the “sheer tenacity and strength of character” of the grandmother who Yates attacked.
The review reveals Yates pleaded with social workers in Aberdeen to let him buy a knife on the day he was released from prison. He was taken to an Asda supermarket where social workers noticed him looking at children and “trying to get their attention”, but the incident was not reported.
Commenting on the report, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: “Scotland has one of the most robust systems for managing sex offenders anywhere in the world and the monitoring of such offenders is now tougher than ever before. However, if processes can be improved and strengthened further, our law enforcement agencies and the Scottish Government will take every opportunity of building on and strengthening the steps already taken to protect our communities from sex offenders.”
Referring to the GPS tracking system suggestion, he said the government is “actively considering” the option.
