I'd very much like to respond. Thank you.
First of all, anyone who's applying for a pardon has not reoffended, certainly not to the awareness of the police or the courts, or else he or she won't get the pardon. There's an assumption that sexual offenders can never be rehabilitated. I've heard this. People always say “they say”. Yet the evidence is that 90% of sexual offenders do not reoffend. And we are talking only about people who can prove they have not, when we are talking about being able to apply for a pardon. So anyone who is applying for a pardon, including Mr. James, has gone offence-free for at least five years from the time they finished their last sentence. So I think we can accept, at some point, that they have stopped the behaviour.
In terms of whether they should be able to get a pardon, they should, absolutely. In terms of protection...I have applied both in this country and in other countries to work with the vulnerable sector. I have had a criminal record check. There is already a provision there. There is a box you're required to check if you're going to be working with children. Even if you have a pardon, it will show if you have had a sexual offence working with children. So there's already a provision there whereby the vulnerable sector is protected and people can find out, even when there has been a pardon. Simply by requiring that the volunteer or employee check the box for a vulnerable person check, the employer will be told whether there has been a sexual offence.