Hundreds of registered sex offenders have gone missing in three years, police figures show.
Data obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act shows that 729 offenders vanished or were wanted for arrest between 2019 and 2021.
The broadcaster also got figures from 21 forces that showed 1,500 sex offenders had changed their name after they were convicted.
This is legal but registered sex offenders must tell the police of the change, or they could face five years in prison.
However, campaigners say it leaves abusers free to go on to reoffend in their new identity.
Della Wright, who was abused at the age of six by a man who later changed his name and targeted more children, told the broadcaster that current criminal records checks provide a false sense of security.
She said the current system, that allowed her attacker Terry Price to change his name twice, is open to abuse.
“It shouldn’t be for victims and survivors to beg Government to do something about this,” she told the BBC. “We’re still having to ask in 2023.”
Campaign group The Safeguarding Alliance says allowing offenders to change their name undermines laws that are designed to protect victims by allowing the police to provide information about criminals with histories of domestic violence or child abuse.
It has highlighted the “serious safeguarding loophole” that it says “makes a mockery of the legal system”.
