A PILOT scheme to allow Southampton parents to ask police if anyone with access to their child is a convicted paedophile is being expanded to include the whole of Hampshire today.

The child sex offenders disclosure scheme will allow any parent in the county to check whether their friends, neighbour, babysitter, someone in Hampshire with contact with their child is a registered sex offender.

Southampton has 255 registered sex offenders and was one of four areas of the UK selected for the trial last September.

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So far 23 people in the city have made inquiries to police about finding information about people.

Now people across the county and the Isle of Wight will be allowed to ask police for details about anyone living in the county who has any contact with their child.

“The expansion means that anyone in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight who has a child protection concern, or wants to simply find out if a person who has contact with a child they know, poses a risk, can now apply under the pilot,” said pilot leader Det Chief Insp Mark Ashthorpe.

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