Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter

Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller is demanding that Parliament move swiftly to table and debate legislation to tackle sex offenders.

Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, Simpson Miller said women and children were living in fear because of an increase in sexual attacks against them.

"What is happening now with our children, it is too much to for them to bear," Simpson Miller said. She was opening debate on a motion to have Parliament begin debate on the recommendations of a task force set up to develop sexual offences legislation.

Several females, many of them young adults and children, have been the victims of sexual attacks in recent months.

Simpson Miller told members of the House of Representatives that it was time for them to debate the bill.

"We expect that the sexual offences bill will be tabled in this Parliament before we rise for the Christmas recess," Simpson Miller said.

A joint select committee last year analysed and suggested changes to the way the law treats sexual offences.

Merger suggested

Among its recommendations, the joint select committee suggested a merging of the Offences Against the Person Act and the Incest Act into one. It also expanded the categories of persons who can be charged with incest to include caregivers.

Another recommendation was for the establishment of a sex offenders registry.

Simpson Miller said the establishment of the registry would take some time, and has appealed to Government to take whatever action it can to make women and children feel safer.

"People are scared. We have to do something, and we have to do something fast," she added.

Quoting from a letter which is said to have been sent by a school principal to Opposition Spokesman on National Security Peter Bunting, Simpson Miller said "The situation is dire, to say the least."

She urged that a far more proactive approach be taken towards the protection and welfare of these vulnerable persons in our society.

"If a coherent and continuing approach had been adopted by the administration, we would by now have travelled some meaningful distance along the road in relation to a modern sexual offences regime," Simpson Miller said.

The debate on the motion is expected to continue in the House on Tuesday.