Paedophile checks to be trialled in four areas in UK

Single mothers in UK will be able to check if their boyfriends are sex offenders under a pilot scheme to protect children in four police areas, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said.

Police and probation services will disclose the information to parents if they believe a child is at risk.

Ms Smith said nine out of 10 cases of child sex abuse are committed by someone known to the child.

"I'm determined to do more to protect children from predatory paedophiles who deliberately ingratiate themselves into families and exploit their positions of trust to abuse the young," she said.

The move was welcomed by the mother of murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne, who has campaigned with the News of the World tabloid for the whereabouts of convicted sex offenders to be made public.

"It's a step in the right direction," said Sara Payne, whose eight-year-old daughter was abducted and murdered by convicted paedophile Roy Whiting in 2000.

"This is about testing the waters, seeing how people handle the information ... This is about putting children first, not keeping secrets."

But Ms Smith said the moves, first unveiled last summer, would not go as far as publicly identifying offenders living locally.

"I still have concerns that this approach could encourage paedophiles to go missing, beyond the reach of the police and probation services," she said.

"I want to get tough on paedophiles, but I certainly don't want to run the risk of driving them underground, where they could put children at even greater risk."

She said any disclosures about sex offenders would be carefully controlled.

The scheme will be trialled by police in Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Cleveland and Warwickshire.

The Home Office will also work with children's charities to develop the pilot programmes.