A leading expert in Germany on paedophilia running a rehabilitation programme has warned that an increasing number of men are accessing child abuse images online to act out their fantasies.

This, only days after Britain’s senior child protection officer proposed that all paedophiles who access these images should be spared jail.

Dr Beier’s key points in the interview, make for important reading:

• Paedophilia is not a choice;
• Not every paedophile commits sex offences against children and not every sex offender is a pedophile;
• There are two types of offenders – those paedophylically inclined and those who use children as substitutes due to the lack of relationships with those their own age
• Paedophiles know that sexually abusing a child is wrong, so there is no diminished mental capacity involved;
• More and more paedophiles are exploring their sexual orientation by accessing child abuse image online and;
• Reoffending rates among sex offenders remain very high.

Crucially, Dr Beier believes that the answer to reducing offending lies in offering support to juvenile offenders with ‘sexually conspicuous behaviour’, getting their families involved so that they feel supported as many paedophiles feel isolated and alone, and for countries across the world to join forces to create effective programmes which reduce the accessing of images online and sexual offences against children.

Another significant point Dr Beier makes is that reaching out to paedophiles who are not yet known to the justice system is perhaps the most important aspect of tackling child sexual abuse. He says allowing paedophiles the opportunity to come forward to seek support voluntarily is the way to prevent sexual offences in the first place.

This expert’s views should serve as a warning to our government – before we remove jail time with a view to offering offenders counselling, we need to have effective programmes in place first.