A SEX OFFENDER WILL ALWAYS BE A SEX OFFENDER

STATE MUST HELP PARENTS PROTECT CHILDREN

BY JOE MAHONEY
DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF

ALBANY - New Yorkers will be able to get photos and home addresses of thousands more Megan’s Law sex fiends on the Internet as a result of a deal struck yesterday by lawmakers.

The legislation, passed last night as lawmakers scrambled to close this year’s session, adds more than 8,000 “moderate-risk” perverts - known as Level 2 offenders - to the batch of high-risk predators whose mugshots already are posted on the state Web site.

Another key feature of the measure is that police will now be able to tell neighbors about “low risk” creeps - branded as Level 1s - living near them.

“This information will now be more readily available so parents can protect their children,” said Senate Deputy Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau), a prime sponsor of the move to expand the rogues’ gallery of fiends on the Internet.

New York has been one of the nation’s weakest states when it comes to doling out sex offender information to the public, said Laura Ahearn, founder of a New York-based advocacy group called Parents for Megan’s Law. “A sex offender is a sex offender, and this will finally equip communities with the tools they need to protect people,” she told the Daily News.

Gov. Pataki is expected to sign the measure into law.