100 serious offenders back in jail; Criminals locked up for breaking release terms.

Byline: By Mark Cowan CRIME CORRESPONDENT

MORE than 100 sex or violent offenders were sent back to prison last year for breaching the tough terms of their release back into the community.

New figures released today showed there were a total of 1850 registered sex offenders living in the West Midlands under the close watch of police and probation experts in the 12 months to the end of March.

This includes more than 550 in the Black Country - 216 in Sandwell, 179 in Dudley, and 159 in Walsall.

The report showed Birmingham had the highest number with 792 in the community and 104 in Solihull. This represents an almost four per cent fall compared with the same period the year before.

Probation chiefs said one of the main reasons was that many would have been returned to custody for breaching their licence or order requirements that laid down specific rules for their release. The figures were contained in the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements annual report, published today, which were set up to monitor sex and violent offenders living in the community.

The report revealed that 106 violent or sex offenders were returned to custody for the breach of their licence. A total of 99 sex offenders were also cautioned or convicted for breaching the requirements.

Probation West Midlands acting director of operations Ged Bates said: "Whilst ensuring that restrictive controls such as curfews, exclusion zones, or tagging are in place and enforced, probation staff work closely with partners on work with offenders aimed at reducing the future risk they may represent.

"One of the key areas in this regard is confronting offenders about their past behaviour and its consequences for their victims."

Of those, only a handful were said to pose the highest risk and 31 cases were discussed by experts, including police, probation, social services and housing, who sit on the Multi-Agency Public Protection panels.

But they faced the toughest controls as police and probation chiefs wielded a series of strict punishments to prevent them re-offending.

Only one offender in the most serious Level Two and Three categories went on to commit a further crime last year.

Det Supt Cath Hannon, from West Midlands Police, said: "The approach to managing violent offenders and sex offenders is a key priority for us. The partnership approach to this process is essential to effectively managing and reducing the risk that such offenders present to the public."