KEY POINTS:
The creators of a website which names convicted paedophiles are defiant in the face of threats of legal action from some of the sex offenders it has outed.
Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said the trust had been threatened with four lawsuits over its two-year-old internet database www.safenz.org.nz.
The Government's policy was to allow paedophiles to live secretly in the community, but people had a right to know who was living in their midst, Mr McVicar said.
"Naming and shaming" was also the best form of rehabilitation, he said.
In some cases the website provided links to news articles about the offenders. The site had the power to prevent further sex crimes from being committed, Mr McVicar said.
"We got a message from a woman recently who had taken in a boarder and was going to allow him to babysit her seven and nine-year-old daughters, but after checking our database had discovered he was a convicted sex offender."
Mr McVicar said he made no apologies for the impact the database was having on the lives of offenders.
- NZPA
