SST Launches New Website and Offender Databases

13/01/2014

The Sensible Sentencing Trust (SST) is excited to announce the launch of the its new website www.sst.org.nz. The website also contains the recently updated Offender Database, where the general public can access information on convicted paedophiles, serious violent offenders and sexual offenders.

The Sensible Sentencing Trust believes in an open and transparent Justice System. Unlike other countries, New Zealand does not have a government maintained system for the public to access criminal records. SST however, strongly believes that in order to protect the public and help keep offenders accountable for their criminal actions, an Offender Database is paramount.

“We have been gathering court and media information since 2001 to collate and publish two databases; one for Serious Violent Offenders and one for Paedophiles and Sexual Offenders,” Sensible Sentencing Trust CEO, Garth McVicar, says.

The updated database contains over 5000 criminal records with information on release conditions, previous convictions and more. The site also boasts a Database Sentencing Tracker for those who are wishing to view offenders by sentence length.

“We encourage the general public to submit information about serious violent offenders, paedophiles and sexual offenders to keep others in the community safe,” Mr McVicar adds.

In the interest of keeping the public safe, the SST is hopeful the government will implement a National Online Offender Database containing criminal records for these types of offenders. This information is currently available to the public in: Australia, USA, and to a lesser extent, Britain.

Controversially SST is currently being taken to court by the Director of Human Rights Proceedings for publishing the name of an offender who has multiple convictions for sexual assault against children. It is claimed that he has name suppression and therefore the publication on SST’s database breached his privacy; however the district court has confirmed that there is no record of such.

“The public has a right to know who is living next door or coaching their kids so they can keep their loved ones safe” states McVicar.

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