(1)If it appears to a chief officer of police that the following conditions are fulfilled with respect to any person in his police area, namely—
(a)that the person is a sex offender; and
(b)that the person has acted, since the relevant date, in such a way as to give reasonable cause to believe that an order under this section is necessary to protect the public from serious harm from him,
the chief officer may apply for an order under this section to be made in respect of the person.
(2)Such an application shall be made by complaint to the magistrates' court whose commission area includes any place where it is alleged that the defendant acted in such a way as is mentioned in subsection (1)(b) above.
(3)If, on such an application, it is proved that the conditions mentioned in subsection (1) above are fulfilled, the magistrates' court may make an order under this section (a “sex offender order”) which prohibits the defendant from doing anything described in the order.
(4)The prohibitions that may be imposed by a sex offender order are those necessary for the purpose of protecting the public from serious harm from the defendant.
(5)A sex offender order shall have effect for a period (not less than five years) specified in the order or until further order; and while such an order has effect, Part I of the [1997 c. 51.] Sex Offenders Act 1997 shall have effect as if—
(a)the defendant were subject to the notification requirements of that Part; and
(b)in relation to the defendant, the relevant date (within the meaning of that Part) were the date of service of the order.
(6)Subject to subsection (7) below, the applicant or the defendant may apply by complaint to the court which made a sex offender order for it to be varied or discharged by a further order.
(7)Except with the consent of both parties, no sex offender order shall be discharged before the end of the period of five years beginning with the date of service of the order.
(8)If without reasonable excuse a person does anything which he is prohibited from doing by a sex offender order, he shall be liable—
(a)on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or to both; or
(b)on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or to a fine, or to both.
(9)Where a person is convicted of an offence under subsection (8) above, it shall not be open to the court by or before which he is so convicted to make an order under subsection (1)(b) (conditional discharge) of section 1A of the 1973 Act in respect of the offence.