Failures over offender who tried to kill woman to rape grand-daughters

A REPORT into a sex offender who tried to murder a woman so he could abduct and rape her young grand-daughters has urged ministers to consider introducing GPS monitoring, and pinpointed a series of official failures in the case.

• A report has recommended the introduction of GPS monitoring for sex offenders

• Recommendation made in light of the case of Ryan Yates, who tried to murder a woman in order to abduct and rape her granddaughters

• Report says aauthorities are currently “limited in their ability to manage the risks” of individuals reoffending

Ryan Yates attacked the 60-year-old woman with a knife in an Aberdeen park but she fought back to try to protect her granddaughters who were aged two and eight.

He carried out the attack just days after being released from prison where he had been serving a sentence for a sexual offence.

Two days before the incident in October 2009, and four days after Yates had been freed from jail, the authorities obtained a court order banning him from accosting females in public.

But a report into the way the authorities dealt with Yates said those monitoring him were “limited in their ability to manage the risks” he posed before this being granted.

The significant case review stated that had the sexual offences prevention order and other powers been in place, “opportunities to intervene and return him to custody may have been acted upon”.

The report made a number of recommendations in the wake of the case, including calling on the Scottish Government to consider introducing a GPS tagging system to monitor high-risk offenders in the community.

It said: “This would allow for tracking the movements of an offender and zoning areas he or she would not be allowed to enter, such as parks and school areas.”

It also urged ministers to consider changing the law to allow for applications to be made for life-long restriction orders on offenders who have already been jailed, if they are assessed as posing a high risk of reoffending before their release.

Yates, who was aged 30 when he was sentenced, was made the subject of a life-long restriction order for his attack on the grandmother, with judge Lord Pentland telling him at the time he would probably never be released because of the severity of his crime. The report further recommended the Scottish Prison Service review its treatment programmes to directly address those who have a “sexual preference for children or sexual violence preferences by creating a bespoke intervention treatment programme for those offenders posing the greatest risk”.

It paid tribute to the grandmother whom Yates attacked, who “by her sheer tenacity and strength of character, protected the two children”.

The report said the authorities involved, including the police and the local authority, shared information about Yates and had worked to “comprehensively identify the real risks of harm and the risks of reoffending”.

But it added: “Although risk factors and protective factors were identified and evidenced in meetings, there does not appear to have been any co-ordinated plan to mitigate these risks.”

It also said that given the level of risk Yates posed the “option to use more intrusive police tactics should/could have been discussed”.

A Scottish Government spokesman said ministers were “actively considering the options” in relation to using GPS tracking to monitor offenders.

Justice secretary Kenny MacAskill said ministers would “carefully consider the recommendations”.

The report was commissioned by Grampian Police and Aberdeen City Council and was prepared by a number of organisations involved in the monitoring of sex offenders in the Highland region.

Tam Cowan, who chairs the Northern Community Justice Authority’s multi-agency public protection arrangements strategy group, said: “It is simply not possible to monitor an individual’s movements at all times, particularly in cases such as this where an offender is determined to commit further crimes after being released back into the community.”

Conservative justice spokesman David McLetchie said the report “exposes a shocking catalogue of errors and misjudgements”.

Labour justice spokesman Lewis Macdonald said the “radical” report had made a “number of practical suggestions that should be implemented as a matter of priority”.