December 2012 Somerset sex offender appears on TV’s Crimewatch Whitting pictured above with and without beard A SEX offender who police believe may be in the Burnham and Highbridge area has featured on BBC1’s Crimewatch programme. The Weekly News reported in October how police issued a public alert about registered sex offender Lee Whitting after he failed to let them know where he was. Officers want to speak to Whitting, who was deported from New Zealand in 2010, about an incident in Taunton when a woman walking on a canal path was pulled on to an embankment and assaulted. She managed to get away and stop a passing member of the public – the offender ran away from the scene. Whitting featured on Crimewatch, and a police spokesman said: “We need information about where he is. “He has previously led an itinerant lifestyle, sleeping rough, using tents in wooded areas and also unoccupied caravans. “Meticulous enquiries have been carried out, but we’ve been unable to locate Whitting. “We believe he may be in the Somerset East and West areas, specifically Taunton, Burnham and Highbridge. He also has links to York.” Whitting is described as white, 5ft 9ins tall, slim, with dark brown, receding hair and a beard, and unkempt. Anyone with information about him is urged to call DC Andrew Daw at Taunton CID on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800-555111.