The hon. Gentleman is right in linking clause 15 with clause 17. The difference, of course, is that in clause 17 the arrangement is for the individual. If Members have got into the depths of that, they will know that the most interesting and horrifying part of paedophile activity is that it is obsessional. In the teaching and the BBC programme, which I mentioned, attention was drawn to members of a group of paedophiles, which has been active since 1957. They have persisted with their activities over that period in spite of everything that the police have been able to do.

The aim of the clause is prevention. That gang had among its members a fairly elderly gentleman about whom the court was benign. He was in his 70s and he got a short sentence. Within weeks, if not days, of release he was patrolling the schools on his moped again and his activities were the same. He does not have the intellect for the internet and he does not need it. The police could not touch him but they may be able to do so now.

In that area of criminality, repetition is the norm. There is a form of treatment and, if the paedophiles are treated early enough, they can have a form of aversion treatment that is similar to the way in which Alcoholics Anonymous works. Usually, however, the paedophile will not stop—they will continue. Some of

them, especially those with internet access, are very active.

One can see the court encountering two problems. First, it will encounter consistent, persistent, repeat offenders, in whom it is recognised—even with young men—that they will harm children and that they should therefore be imprisoned for a considerable length of time. A provision by which they can be sentenced to seven years and can be out in three and a half years is inadequate.

Secondly, we must recognise that the internet has given paedophiles the opportunity to act across a broad range of children. There was a case about to go to court in which a man was charged with abusing a child. When the police looked at his internet activity, they found that he was grooming 54 children concurrently. If he were taken to court under the Bill, he would go away for a maximum of only five years. He is clearly a considerable danger to children. It is clear that the courts must be able to decide whether he should go away for some considerable time. The court needs an opportunity to consider that particular man, and many others, and realise that, in that area, seven years does not fit with the pattern of the rest of the Bill. The sentence does not fit with the patterns of behaviour of many persistent, obsessional and predatory paedophiles.

I hope that the Minister will think again, follow the trend of the Bill and accept 14 years as a maximum.