TV alert plan to catch kidnappers

Published on Thursday 14 November 2002 00:00

A POLICE force today became the first to adopt a United States-style scheme designed to catch child kidnappers before they harm or murder their victims.

The scheme, called Child Rescue Alert, interrupts television and radio broadcasts with details of missing youngsters.

It is hoped the system, to be pioneered in the UK by Sussex Police, will help prevent the kind of high-profile cases that have shocked the nation, such as the kidnap and murder of nine-year-old Sarah Payne.

Detective Chief Superintendent Jeremy Payne, head of the Sussex Police Crime Management Department, said: "Child Rescue Alert is not a new concept as it has always been our responsibility to do everything we can in an abduction case to save the life of that child.

"The main aspect about this scheme is to get as much information to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, in order to save that life."

The scheme uses newsflashes to appeal for early sightings of missing children and is based on an American concept called Amber Alert, introduced in Texas following the kidnapping and murder of nine-year-old Amber Hagerman.

Joann Donnalan, who was instrumental in promoting Amber Alert, was today attending an official launch in Brighton of Child Rescue Alert together with Sara Payne, mother of Sarah, who was snatched near her grandparents’ home in West Sussex in July 2000 and murdered by convicted paedophile Roy Whiting.