Guidance aims to prevent another Evans case

Expert team announced in wake of damning report on supervision failures

News, 13 December 2005

A team of experts will be appointed to develop national guidance to tighten the monitoring and supervising of young sex offenders, the Scottish Executive has announced.

The move comes in the light of the independent report into the case of Colyn Evans, the 17 year old convicted of the murder of 16 year old Karen Dewar in Tayport, Fife. That report identified serious failures by police, social work and housing authorities both internally and through lack of communication with other agencies, which meant that the risk of Evans committing a serious offence was not identified.

The new group will work with national agencies and local service providers to develop measures to improve the identification, risk assessment, and planning for young sex offenders, particularly those who may be most at risk of committing more serious offences as adults. A draft national strategy will be developed by spring 2006.

Two joint groups, already undertaking work relevant to this case, have been asked to take the report's findings into account before presenting their recommendations to ministers early next year. This includes work by the Youth Justice Improvement Group on effective integration of the youth and adult justice systems, in particular the transfer of information between the two.

Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson said:

"This tragic case has highlighted where further work is urgently needed on the management and supervision of young sex offenders. This is an extremely complex area but one we must address. ...

"We will appoint a team of professionals with expertise in adolescent sex offending to work urgently to produce a strategy which will ensure swift, effective action is taken at an early stage to deal with these young people."