Sex offenders to be banned from leaving ‘restriction zones'
Those who commit violent or sexual crimes will be ordered to remain in a certain area after they have been released from prison, for the remainder of their sentence.
The Ministry of Justice has announced plans to change the law to introduce 'restriction zones' designed to limit the freedoms of the most serious offenders.
They will differ from current 'exclusion zones', which are designed to stop an offender from going to an area where a victim lives.
The broader restriction zones will curb an offender's movements, meaning they will be confined to a predetermined area until the end of their sentence.
Hetti Barkworth-Nanton and Diana Parkes, of the Joanna Simpson Foundation, which supports domestic abuse victims and has campaigned for the change, called it 'a powerful step forward'.
In a statement, they said: 'By placing restrictions on offenders instead, this will now give survivors the freedom they deserve to live, move and heal without fear.
'It will also be more cost-effective for those monitoring the perpetrators as they will be locked in specific areas rather than having to monitor the exclusion zones where the victims live.'
Diana Parkes' daughter, Joanna Simpson, was bludgeoned to death by her husband with a claw hammer in their family home in October 2010 as their two young children cowered in a playroom.
The zones will be devised based on conversations with the affected victims, and on the assessment of risk as deemed by probation officers.
Offenders will be monitored through the use of geotagging and tracking technology, keeping them in a specific limited area.
One domestic abuse survivor, known as Leanne, said that the change was a 'long time coming'.
The mother-of-two, 54, said that she would have asked for a restriction zone to cover the school where she would take her children, her local supermarket or near her family's homes.
'These are places where I was confronted, even when he had restraining orders,' she said.
'If I could say those places, and I knew I could go to those places safely, happy days, I'm protected. I've been listened to.'
Georgia Harrison, a reality TV star who campaigns on violence against women and girls after becoming a victim of revenge porn, also supported the proposal.
'Why on earth should a survivor have to pick an area and stay there for the rest of their life?' the Refuge ambassador said.
'It makes so much more sense that a perpetrator will be subjected to a restriction zone and a survivor can go wherever they want and feel safe.'
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