County set to implement Sarah's Law

PARENTS across Sussex will soon be able to check if their children are in danger from sexual predators.

A new paedophile alert scheme is being extended to the county, after a pilot scheme was deemed a success.

The scheme has been labelled Sarah's Law, after years of campaigning by the mother of eight-year-old Sarah Payne, who was murdered by a Crawley paedophile a decade ago.

The new ruling means all parents will be given the right to check if an adult that has access to their children has a conviction for child sex offences.

Sussex Police will be one of 18 forces to take up the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme, after it was tested in four other areas over a 12 month period.

Trials were set up following the murder of Sarah Payne in 2000 by convicted paedophile Roy Whiting.

Sarah was playing outside her grandparents home in Kingston Gorse, near Littlehampton, when she was snatched by monster Whiting and killed.

Her body was found 16 days later in a shallow grave near Pulborough.

It later emerged that pervert Whiting had lived in Langley Green, including a stint as a volunteer at Cherry Lane Adventure Playground for children in the summer of 1983.

Police have said the scheme will be rolled out in Sussex over the coming months.