Sex offender’s right to privacy claim rejected

A child sex offender who claimed that forcing him to provide bank account details to authorities was an unfair invasion of his privacy has lost a High Court human rights fight.

By The Newsroom

Published 19th Sep 2013, 01:01 BST

Christopher Prothero – who left prison more than three years ago and is listed on the sex offenders register – asked the High Court to declare the bank detail requirement incompatible with human rights legislation.

But two judges rejected his claim. They said the requirement – a feature of sex offences legislation – was a “practical and proportionate” way of protecting potential victims.

Judges said Prothero had been given a four-and-a-half-year jail term – after being convicted, in 2007, of indecent assault and indecency with a child – and was released in 2010.

They did not give his age or any detail of his address in a written ruling handed down in London following a hearing in June.

Prothero claimed that the bank detail requirement was a disproportionate interference with his right to private and family life.

High Court London