+xAfter reading the jaw-droppingly depressing 10.11 on page 57 - "When to disclose", with catch-all phrases like: "others may be at risk", "potential victims", "new relationships... may include friends", "employment, training or education," "an event or venue" - how are we expected to think of ways of moving forward while having a massive sticker on our forehead saying 'bad person'
These are instructions on when it might be appropriate to consider disclosure, not a requirement to disclose in every situation. But the way that the risk is assessed is going to be crucial. The interesting thing, is that these suggestions apply, regardless of whether the person has a no contact provision in their SHPO, or not.
Now, if you don't have a no contact with u-18s clause, then it means that the judge who issued the SHPO, has concluded that the risk of a contact offence is so low, that it doesn't justify putting a no contact restriction in the SHPO, so why would the police then think that the risk is high enough to justify disclosure?
It's possible that the police, in their home visits, may have observed something that the judge did not see, in which case they should go back to court and ask the judge to amend the SHPO, to include a no contact provision. But if that is not the case, then where is the justification for disclosure?
In short, if contact is not forbidden by the SHPO, then disclosure should not be necessary, because the risk of a contact offence is not high enough.
But, even in cases where a no contact clause does exist, the risk may still not be high enough to justify disclosure. That would depend on the facts of the original case. In the R v Parsons (2017) case, he was convicted of an image offence only, but was given a no contact restriction, because the police found evidence of him 'browsing or searching for' websites that could have been used for chats with young children. Parsons was never accused of, or convicted, of a contact offence.
So on that basis, the police might consider disclosure to be necessary for him, but again, under what circumstances? The facts of the case suggest that a contact offence would only occur online, if it occurred at all. It wasn't an offence committed in a public place, so why would disclosure be necessary for public places such as gyms or cinemas?
Finally, there is the proportionality test. I've heard plenty of people say they have been told to disclose in some circumstances, but not in others. I've yet to hear of a case, where anyone has been told they must disclose to the supermarket manager, before they can go into a supermarket. But why not? We know that if you go into a supermarket, there are almost certainly going to be kids there somewhere, so if the risk of a contact offence is so high, then logically, you must disclose to the supermarket too. On the other hand, if the police don't consider a supermarket to be too risky, then why would a gym or a cinema be more risky?