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The murder of 14-year-old Rhiana Moore and her unborn child by a convicted sex predator was the latest in a long string of sex crimes that may have been prevented by the existence of a sex offender public register.

I want to cite two other incidents which underscore my concerns about the need to make the public aware of danger in their midst:

• The 2002 jailing of a serial sex offender for assaulting an eight-year-old girl as she walked to school, and

• The two-time jailing of a serial sex offender in 2003 after he was found guilty of having sex with a 13-year-old, a girl under 14 and, while on bail for that matter, fathering twins with a 15-year-old.

The lack of a register in Bermuda is scandalous. There is provision in the law for the public to be informed about sex offenders, but that decision is up to the discretion of the Minister of Justice. Otherwise, there is no provision for general public notification despite ongoing calls for one, including these two:

• In September 2003, a tearful mother whose six-year old daughter was the subject of a sexual assault court case involving a convicted paedophile called for a register to better protect children.

• In 2004, Det. Sgt. Mark Clarke, who ran the Police Juvenile Domestic Crime Unit, called on the government to curtail the number of sex crimes against women and children through the adoption of a national strategy to prevent child abuse and domestic violence.

But putting in place a register is not enough. You need the commitment in place to make it work. My experience with the senior abuse register provides a cautionary tale.

Senior abuse has been dealt with through the Senior Abuse Act, which was passed in 2008. It established a register of persons who have abused seniors and made the reporting of senior abuse mandatory.

Unfortunately, the information about the senior abuse register has not been circulated to the public to any great extent. I was told by senior police officer whom I had approached with a complaint of senior abuse that he had never heard of the legislation or the register.

Precious little advertising has gone into educating the public about senior abuse. If I have problems getting information as an MP, what chance does a member of the pubic have?

Communication with the public is abysmal.

I truly hope that Government will listen to the people and does the work to get sex offender register in place and to make it work.

Louise Jackson is Shadow Minister for Health & Seniors.

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