Hundreds of sex offenders changed their names to avoid detection in the past three years.Police Scotland have received 521 notices of the criminals – including paedophiles – taking on new identities since 2019.
Sex offenders must notify the police about any name change but they are not prohibited from changing their names.A freedom of information request found Scotland’s police force was notified 161 times of sex offenders changing their names in 2019-20, with 162 the following year.
That rose to a record 198 in 2021-22. Serial killer Peter Tobin used the name Pat McLaughlin to get work at the church in Glasgow where he raped and murdered Angelika Kluk in 2006.At the time he was on parole for the rape of two teenage girls in England in 1994.
Glasgow pensioner Esther Brown was raped and murdered by a man who changed his name shortly before the attack last year.He had previously served a long sentence for rape.
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