I know of someone in London who is supposedly a convicted paedophile or child molester. I’d like to get details of the conviction (e.g., exactly which crime he was convicted of, when, and what sentence was passed). I presume that most criminal records are public, but how would I go about finding the record for this particular person? All I know is his name, current address and approximate age. I don’t know when the offence was committed, but I do know it was committed in or around London. Where do I start in order to find the records? Does the UK have a sex offender registry?
I suggest you contact your local police and ask. If they can’t give you the info themselves, they might be able to refer you. Does the Home Office have a centralized register? I wouldn’t be surprised.
Unless you have a legal reason to know this, it will be difficult to find this out. It will be on the Police National Computer, but a police officer or civilian who accessed this for you would be likely to lose their job. The Sex Offender’s Register is part of the PNC and is similarly protected.
The best you can do is check newspaper stories about the trial.
Should you find the information from a bent source and then publicise it, it would be easy to trace the officer/individual who gave you the information.
So criminal trials are not matters of public record in the UK? I find that hard to believe, since anyone is free to visit criminal courts and sit in on a trial. And how do lawyers refer to case law if all the records are sealed?
Of course, criminal proceedings are public. That’s different from the state operating a database of sex-offence convictions, for the public to search using vague initial information. Also note that the sex offender register includes people cautioned for such crimes, and therefore they’ve never been through the legal system at all.
No, criminal trials are public. What I meant was that to find out the information about a particular trial you would need to know where and when it took place. This would involve a considerable amount of research as most trials are only covered in local papers of which there are hundreds or maybe even thousands. Case law would only be easy to find if the trial resulted in a significant change in the interpretation of the law. If you had access to a legal database you might then be able to track Regina V XXX, but I am not sure that such databases are in the public domain.
It looks like you aren’t going to be able to get the UK government to help you, as an individual, get someone’s criminal records unless there is some reason other than simple curiosity that you need to find out (perhaps if the person is suspected of a crime in the U.S.?). Here’s some info on how individuals can obtain copies of their own criminal records in the U.K. (or documentation of the lack thereof) for an official government purpose in the U.S., and even then, it needs to be done via police channels:
"POLICE RECORD
Available. Immigrant visa applicants who have resided in the United Kingdom for six months or more since the age of sixteen are required to obtain a statement from the National Identification Service, Subject Access Office, Room 331, New Scotland Yard, Broadway, London SW1 OBG.
This statement will serve to advise the consular office whether or not any criminal conviction is held against the applicant. The National Identification Service does not accept applications from individual applicants; the request must be made through local police. By law, it can take up to 40 days to receive a response. The fee for this service is 10 British Pounds Sterling.
Persons resident outside the United Kingdom should write to the Data Processing Officer of the police authority where they last resided in the United Kingdom to obtain the appropriate application form. Residents of the United Kingdom should apply to their local police station where they may obtain the application form. When completing the application form, the applicable category is “Prosecution/Conviction History”. The local police (or data protection officer), will submit the application to the National Identification Service and the response to the application will be sent directly to the applicant.
Applicants are legally entitled to gain access to the information about themselves under Section 7 of the British Data Protection Act, 1998.
COURT RECORD
Available. Applicants may obtain court records (usually called “Memorandum of Conviction” in the United Kingdom), by writing to the Clerk of Court of the court (or courts) in which he or she was tried. This request must include as precise a date and place as possible.
PRISON RECORD
Unavailable."
I suppose it is worth explaining that there is a procedure for checking backgrounds of people working in particular professions, in the form of the Criminal Records Bureau, but it operates on a need-to-know basis for prospective employers etc.
Do a credit check.
Quite often, there will be employment histories, & possibly gaps to give you clues.
This assume that doing a credit check is possible in the UK…
Clairobscur is right, there’s no ‘credit check’ which will give you such information.
I’m being CRB-checked right now; it’s a matter of course for anyone who wants to work with kids, but as far as I know, you can’t just request such a check on someone without their knowledge and consent.
Yep, that’s what I meant - the employer has to have a good reason for needing the information. And although you’re applying for an enhanced disclousure for work with children, the standard one applies to a surprisingly wide spectrum of jobs - I had to get one for a library job, solely because I would have access to antique items and documents.
The information you have to disclose on the CRB form is truly scary; I have to provide (these are the actual sections of the form):
A) Full name and address details, date of birth, National Insurance number (that’s approximately equivalent to SSN)
B) Details of the position being applied for (OK, nothing scary here)
C) History of any changes of name, details of birthplace, home and work telephone numbers
D) Details of previous addresses
E) Details of marital status, number of children, Bank account number and sort code, employment and occupancy status, mother’s maiden name.
F) Details of personal or professional referee.
X) Passport number, Driving licence number, Birth certificate details, marriage certificate details.
When I was given the form to complete, I voiced concern over the future security of the completed document and any copies made of it; the form is an identity thief’s wet dream.
The point is though, that in order to perform a CRB check on someone, you need all that info, and the form can only be submitted by a registered examiner, and even if you somehow circumvented all those problems, there’s a chance that the bureau might independently contact the subject to ask them something.
You mean the security of the application, or of the disclosure you receive in return? If the former, it’s not that much different to a full passport application, and if the latter, it has little information that isn’t on your driving licence.
So how do British lenders check the credit worthiness of loan applicants?
The application form itself; I was wanting to know who will take copies of it, and how securely they will be stored. The difference between this and a passport application is that (at least initiallly) it is handled locally, by the organisation to which I am applying.
credit reference agencies exist to check whether the applicant has a bad credit history (or absence of any history at all). Which is nothing to do with his criminal record, or lack of one.
The Rehabilitation Of Offenders Act 1974 prohibits revealing an offender’s record after the conviction(s) are deemed ‘spent’ [though there is a long list of exceptions to this rule for certain jobs, and other things like gun licencing]
In that case, very good question. I turned up this PDF on the CRB’s site, which offers some answers.
Grrr, that was the wrong link, but says the same things but for applicants rather than the CRB itself.