EDINBURGH (Sputnik), Mark Hirst – Scotland, which operates an independent legal system to the rest of the UK, has considerably less Registered Sex Offenders (RSOs) wanted by police than England and Wales, a spokesman for Police Scotland told Sputnik.
"There are zero missing sex offenders in Scotland. There are nine sex offenders wanted by Police Scotland of which eight are abroad and the ninth is probably abroad, but we are pursuing that," Iain Fleming said.
Fleming was commenting after figures obtained by the BBC following a Freedom of Information request revealed the whereabouts of 396 RSOs were currently unknown by police. A total of 43,664 people are currently on the Sex Offenders Register in England and Wales.
Both the UK Press Association and the BBC focused on the number of "missing" sex offenders south of the border. Fleming said, however, it was important to differentiate between "missing" and "wanted".
"There is a difference between missing Registered Sex Offenders (RSOs) and those who are wanted. We had a missing RSO last week who we located after a couple of days. Those who go missing are classed as missing persons, but that is different from those who are wanted," Fleming explained.
