Newport's 2019 Halloween Sex Offender Safety Guide

NEWPORT, RI — With Halloween trick-or-treating just around the corner, it's a good time to know who is living in your city and neighborhood. According to the Rhode Island Sex Offender Registry, there are six Level II and III offenders living in Newport.

Of the six listed offenders, five are Level II and just one is classified as Level III. According to the state's Parole Board Notification Guidelines, Level II offenders have a "moderate" risk of re-offending, while Level III offenders carry a "high risk."

A list of all Newport offenders' names and addresses can be found on the state of Rhode Island's website. Sex offenders are not wanted by police and the information cannot be used to discriminate against or harass them.

Law enforcement officials and researchers caution that the registries can play only a limited role in preventing child sexual abuse and stress that most perpetrators are known to the child.

The U.S. Department of Justice, which oversees the National Sex Offender Public Website, estimates that only about 10 percent of perpetrators of child sexual abuse are strangers to the child.

The Justice Department estimates 60 percent of perpetrators are known to the child but are not family members but rather family friends, babysitters, child care providers and others, and 30 percent of child victims are abused by family members. Nearly a quarter of the abusers are under the age of 18, the department estimates.

Click on the icons for names and information on Newport's registered sex offenders.

One of the offenders, Joseph McFadden, is listed as "homeless" and is not included on the map. McFadden is a Level III offender who was convicted of second-degree child molestation of a 13-year-old girl in 1994, second-degree child molestation of a nine-year-old girl in 2005 and failure to register as a sex offender in 2017.

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