Salmond pledges action on report into sex offender who attacked grandmother

The Scottish Government has pledged to act on a report on a sex offender who tried to murder a 60-year-old woman and abduct her two young granddaughters.

Alex Salmond told MSPs the government was "carefully considering" the contents of the significant case review of Ryan Yates and his "despicable crime", and Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill would update the Scottish Parliament soon.

The review made a number of recommendations, including a suggestion that the government should consider introducing a GPS tagging system for high-risk offenders.

It also asked ministers to consider changing the law so that lifelong restriction orders can be obtained for offenders who have already been jailed, if they are assessed as posing a high risk of reoffending.

Yates had been released from jail just five days before he attacked the 60-year-old woman with a knife in an Aberdeen park in October 2009.

She fought back to try to protect the girls, who were aged two and eight, from being abducted and raped by 29-year-old Yates.

Just two days before the incident the authorities obtained a court order banning Yates, who had been in prison for a sexual offence, from accosting females in public.

But a report into the way the authorities dealt with Yates said those monitoring him were "limited in their ability to manage the risks" he posed.

Alex Salmond was asked about the Scottish Governments response to the report during First Ministers Questions on Thursday.

Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald said funding for intensive support and monitoring of the most serious offenders on release had not been available to Aberdeen City Council in this case because Yates had served his full sentence and was not subject to any licence conditions.

He asked Mr Salmond if he agreed "that these are issues that need to be addressed urgently in order to maximise public protection and ensure that incidents of this kind can never happen again".

Liberal Democrat MSP Alison McInnes asked about the recommendation to change the law to enable lifelong restriction orders to be imposed retrospectively. She also asked how this could be reconciled with human rights laws.

Mr Salmond said: "There are attractions in that recommendation in terms of public safety; there are obstacles that would have to be overcome in terms of the legislative process.

"The burden of this report brings forward valuable information and I think all of us will want to see as much as possible of that further strengthen and further improve our systems."

He said: "Whatever processes can be improved and strengthened further, the law enforcement agencies and Scottish Government will take appropriate action following this report.

"The Cabinet Secretary for Justice will in early course update Parliament on the actions being taken in specific response to the specific recommendations."

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