Two years for sex offender's fake address to be noticed

Published on Monday 21 April 2008 22:18

A CONVICTED sex offender was able to evade monitoring on his release from prison after it took the authorities nearly two years to discover the address he gave them did not exist.

Police yesterday launched a public appeal to trace Surjit Singh, 62, one of four registered sex offenders who are posted missing in the west of Scotland. They also released details of Frank Mvula, a 26-year-old from Malawi who was jailed for assaulting a young student.

Neither is considered to be at a high risk of re-offending – although they have committed criminal offences by failing to notify authorities of any change in address. They are not thought to still be in the UK.

Last night, opposition politicians criticised the "significant delays" in publicising such information when sex offenders could be at large.

Strathclyde Police stressed its procedures for managing the 1,100 sex offenders in its area were robust, pointing out a new system was able to establish that Singh's address was fake.

The decision to publish photographs of the men was taken by the force following discussions with the Crown Office after it had "exhausted" every other possible line of inquiry. They have not disclosed the identities of the two other registered sex offenders missing in Strathclyde.

It also emerged yesterday that Martin Cusick, a paedophile missing for more than 2 years, had made contact with the police following a similar appeal last month.

The 52-year-old former police officer now lives in Canada, and Strathclyde Police are in discussions over how to bring criminal proceedings against him.

One other unnamed registered sex offender who was posted missing has also been traced recently.

Police stressed yesterday that ad hoc arrangements that let Singh disappear had been robustly overhauled. Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), a new system for managing sex offenders, has been in place for a year and it was through it that police discovered he was missing in May 2007.

Professor Roisin Hall, chief executive of the Risk Management Authority, the quango set up to monitor and assess the most dangerous criminals in Scotland, said there were "clear advantages" to the MAPPA system which allowed agencies to better share information

Bill Aitken, the Scottish Tories' justice spokesman, said: "In future there must not be significant delays in highlighting these cases. The Cabinet Secretary accepted that people should have their details publicised. Police can now act immediately."

&#149 Singh is 5ft 8ins, brown-eyed, of medium build and balding. Mvula is 6ft 2ins, slim and smart. He has dark hair, brown eyes and an African accent.

Whereabouts unknown

SURJIT Singh, originally from India, was imprisoned for two months in April 2005 at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for a sexually aggravated assault.

The 62-year-old, who told police at the time of his arrest that he was an illegal immigrant who had been living in Britain for eight years, approached two 17-year-old women as they walked home in Kincardine, before licking one of them on the cheek. On his release from jail, Singh gave the prison authorities an address in Glasgow's Southside where he would be living. However, almost two years later it emerged that the address did not exist.

Frank Mvula, 26, was jailed for three and a half years at the High Court in Edinburgh in April 2004 after carrying out a sex attack on a sleeping girl in his student halls of residence.

At the time of his offence – in 2003 – Mvula was in the third year of his degree in marketing at Stirling University on a student visa.

Mvula was released from prison pending appeal in January 2005. His whereabouts have been unknown since February 2006.