PLANS to give police greater powers to restrict the freedom of suspected sex offenders have been described as “deeply concerning” by campaigners.

As revealed in the Oxford Mail, Oxford West and Abingdon MP Nicola Blackwood is waiting to see the law changed to make it easier for police to hand out orders even if a person has not been convicted of a sex crime. All the police will have to prove is that a child is at risk. But critic Richard Atkinson, chairman of the criminal law committee of the Law Society, said it was not right to restrict someone’s freedom without enough evidence to prosecute them in a criminal court.

And he said the focus instead should be on helping sex victims give evidence in court.

He said: “What particularly concerns me is this is effectively circumventing the rule of law.

“(Those who are subjected to an order) will be deemed by the population as paedophiles and they will have to suffer all that follows with such a branding.

The Government announced the new powers after Miss Blackwood lobbied for changes after the Operation Bullfinch investigation in to child sex grooming in Oxford.