THE Home Office has held a private meeting with the mother of murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne to discuss plans for a UK "Megan's Law", the Sunday Herald can reveal.

In a move that will please many anti-paedophile campaigners but dismay critics of the controversial legislation - under which parents can access details of sex offenders released into the local community - Home Office minister Gerry Sutcliffe met last week with Sara Payne, whose eight-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted and murdered by known paedophile Roy Whiting in 2000.

Since her daughter's death, Payne has conducted a high-profile campaign to have the law introduced in the UK.

She has been backed in her quest by tabloid newspapers, most notably the News Of The World, which ran a campaign of "naming and shaming" paedophiles in the wake of Payne's death.

The news that the Home Office has had private talks with Sara Payne comes after Home Secretary John Reid announced he would send Sutcliffe to the US in the summer to examine the Megan's Law system.

Despite critics accusing Reid of a populist ploy to divert attention from a series of highly publicised failures in his department, the private meeting with Payne is significant and will be taken as an indication that he intends to push through the controversial legislation.

The Sunday Herald can also reveal that the meeting - which took place with Payne and Shy Keenan, who run the sex abuse group Phoenix Survivors - also discussed plans for a 24-hour, state-of-the-art surveillance tagging system for paedophiles.

According to Keenan, who has developed the satellite tracking system with firm Sky Guardian, the Home Office is enthusiastic about conducting trials for the scheme. Under the system - dubbed SG-Rom (Sky Guardian Remote Offender Management) - paedophiles would wear an almost indestructible bracelet and be given a mobile phone fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology so police can constantly track the offender and pinpoint their exact location in the UK.

On the phone there is a "panic button" which offenders can press, linking them to trained counsellors if they are feeling vulnerable or believe they are in danger of re-offending.

If there are concerns about an offender's whereabouts, they can also be contacted via the mobile phone.

The location of schools can be "geo-fenced", meaning that an alert would be sent to the police if an offender approached. Police would be called immediately if the mobile phone and tag were separated.

Keenan said: "Nothing like this has ever been seen in the UK but it's already being used successfully in the US.

"You can never say that a system will completely stop the person from re-offending, but it is more advanced than anything we have at the moment, which cannot monitor an offender's physical activity. With this system you would have a constant log of where this person is, so that you can effectively stop crimes from occurring."

Keenan said she would be approaching the Scottish Executive in the "next few months" with a view to having SG-Rom trialled north of the Border.

In Scotland alone, there are 3000 people on the sex offenders' register, with a further 30,000 names of "potential offenders" held by police on an unofficial list. According to Keenan, both the satellite tracking of offenders and a so-called Megan's Law would offer unprecedented protection to children in the UK.

The decision by Reid to look at a Megan's Law comes six years after then Home Secretary Jack Straw rejected the idea on the grounds that it would be "impossible to enforce" and could lead to attacks on paedophiles.

The News Of The World's campaign to reveal the whereabouts of sex offenders in the wake of Sarah Payne's death led to vigilante-type mobs targeting people thought to have appeared in the newspaper.

Last night, insiders described Sutcliffe's meeting with Payne and Keenan as "very productive".

A Home Office spokesman said it was "not policy" to discuss ministers' private meetings.

He added that the department was looking into satellite technology as well as other forms of tagging systems for offenders.

NEED TO KNOW

THE FACTS Sara Payne, whose daughter Sarah was abducted and murdered by a paedophile on July 1, 2000, has had a secret meeting with the Home Office minister tasked with evaluating a "Megan's Law" for the UK.

BACKGROUND Payne, with the backing of tabloid newspapers, has led a highprofile campaign to have parents informed if convicted sex offenders are released into their neighbourhood.

NEED TO KNOW MORE?

www. phoenixsurvivors. com Sara Payne and Shy Keenan's website.

http: //tinyurl. com/gf3dq Background to Megan's Law.