Home Office minister Hilary Benn has told readers of the Express & Echo in Exeter that it was their newspaper's Kids at Risk campaign that helped influence proposals in the 34-page White Paper, Protecting the Public.

The document, which was unveiled to Parliament last week, announced specific measures to help prevent a repeat of cases like that of a notorious Devon paedophile, James McAlpine.

Under the plans, a new national sex offenders' unit would be set up to stop convicted perverts who go on the run from being able to obtain passports to support a new identity.

That was how McAlpine avoided the police - and carried out a series of assaults during an 18-month period.

Mr Benn said: "Many new measures are being looked at in response to the case the Echo has raised with us.

"Clearly there are lessons to be learned and we share the Echo's concerns about what happened."

He met Echo editor Steve Hall and crime reporter Emma Slee at the Home Office to discuss the new laws.

The Echo launched its Kids at Risk campaign when it emerged that McAlpine used the deed poll system to change his name and get a passport to back up his new identity.

He failed to register his new details or his address when he set himself up as a sports coach where he befriended and abused three teenage boys.

Three months after he disappeared from home in Exeter police were alerted to a man called James Powers, acting suspiciously around children. But police failed to find any previous record when they carried out a name check.

It turned out the man was McAlpine, who was only uncovered when one of his victims came forward.

The Echo is also backing a call by the mother of one of the victims for details to be released to the public of any sex offender who goes missing or when police have lost all trace of them. That was currently up to local police forces but may become national policy.

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