A NEW police computer system is helping Notts Police expose convicted and suspected child sex offenders and abusers.

The Impact Nominal Index system was created in the wake of the Soham murders.

In the last 18 months it has led to one suspected child sex offender, who moved to Notts from outside the county, being removed from a family's home.

Further checks on two individuals arriving in Notts found that one was being investigated by the Metropolitan Police over alleged child abuse and another flagged up a previous arrest and a conviction linked to offences against children.

Sergeant Jenny Burrows said: "We have the Police National Computer which lists convictions but it does not list suspicions and intelligence on those cases that are not proceeded with. That's where the INI comes in.

"The National Police Improvement Agency created it."

All forces in England, Wales and Scotland input information into the system, but the amount and frequency of searches carried out by individual forces varies across Britain depending on resources and caseload.

Searches flag up information under six headings:

Child abuse

Domestic abuse

Crimes reported – details of alleged victims, witnesses and suspects

Custody records

Intelligence – including allegations made that did not end with a prosecution

Links to firearms and firearms offences.

Sgt Burrows said that due to extra resources being made available, the frequency of INI checks by Notts police is set to increase.

She explained: "We currently do INI checks monthly, but from the end of June they are going to be done weekly.

"It's quite regimented how it's done. There's talk nationally about making it more widely available to officers.

"Our child abuse investigation unit have direct access to INI."

Each item of interest identified in a check is followed up with an approach to an officer who will provide the requesting officer with more detailed information on a suspect. The length of time requests are dealt with depend on their urgency, such as if a child is potentially at risk from abuse.

On one occasion, intelligence came in to Notts police that a man who had moved to the county and was thought to have moved in with a young family may be a risk to children. Initial police record checks did not identify any cause for concern, but research done on INI revealed he was being investigated by another force for child cruelty whilst living with another family outside Notts.

Notts Police arranged for the man to be removed from the household and enquiries about his conduct here and in another county are ongoing.

On another occasion, Notts police officers investigating child abuse allegations against a man who had moved to the county had again found minimal information on him in usual system checks. An INI check uncovered child abuse suspicions involving the man in Lincolnshire which led Notts police officers to check out custody records in that county which led to them discovering that he had been investigated for assaulting a seven-year-old girl in Lincolnshire in 1995 and convicted of an indecent assault on a 14-year-old girl in 1992.

Notts Police were surprised the information on the conviction was not on the police national computer.

The additional information found on the new system is being used in a prosecution and may prove vital in securing a conviction.

Finally, a Notts woman befriended a man and would visit him with her young daughter. When the relationship broke down the daughter told her mother that she had been abused by him. There was nothing on Notts police records about him but an INI check revealed links to three child abuse offences in the London area. He was arrested and is being prosecuted.

Sgt Burrows added: "The software for INI has been provided free to Notts police (by the Home Office). Any cost to the force is far outweighed by the benefits."

guy.woodford@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk