A new approach to treating rapists and child abusers has received a national accolade.

The Government wants the Thames Valley Project (TVP), which operates from secret locations in Oxfordshire and has treated more than 150 sex offenders, to set standards for the rest of the country.

The voluntary TVP is one of only three schemes nationwide to be chosen in the first wave of Pathfinder Initiatives, under a Home Office plan to reduce re-offending.

With cases like the release of the Oxfordshire paedophile Rhys Hughes causing widespread public anxiety, the Government is determined to highlight efforts being made to treat released offenders.

The TVP, partly funded by the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Probation Service, started in 1995. It runs cour- ses for a range of recently-released sex offenders. Others may be referred to it by courts, GPs, courts, the probation service and child protection agencies. The programme puts offenders into groups of eight, overseen by two staff. They are played tapes of victims, forced to write imaginary letters to those they abused and made to face the consequences of their actions.

Its selection means the TVP will now work with the Home Office and the Association of Chief Officers of Probation to produce best practice guidance for probation services throughout the country.

Oxfordshire probation chief Eithne Wallis, chief probation officer for Oxfordshire, said: "We take handling sex offending very seriously and all our staff have had TVP training with access to more advice where needed.

"Achieving Pathfinder status is acknowledgement of a well-founded scheme that works"

Of 150 offenders treated in the first six years, only six have re-offended.

But the course is voluntary, although prison could be the alternative. Less serious offenders such as obscene telephone callers, pornographers and flashers are also given places.

The project also provides risk assessments of sex offenders for Thames Valley Police.

But Programme Manager Chris Wilson earlier warned: "The bad news is that there is simply no cure for sexual abusive behaviour. It does not go away. There are only controls."

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