The "right" answer is no. The correct answer is yes: everybody is equal before the law (unless you can't afford to exercise your right of defence or are the head of state, but that's for another day).
However, the Supreme Court's decision that those on the sex offenders' register ought to be able challenge their place on it is further denting the reputation of the Human Rights Act 1998.
David Cameron waded in yesterday with a promise to review the legislation and investigate replacing it with a bill of rights, although, as is customary with the PM, details were vague even if, like the Big Society, the label was good.
It was a three-way triumph for Cameron. His remarks cheered the Tory right, pandered to populist feeling about sex offenders at a time of opinion poll dissatisfaction, and probably satisfied the human rights sneerers in some sections of the media.
What Cameron has on his side is evidence to suggest that the nature of sex offending is different from that of many other crimes.
Radio 4's Today programme carried a short interview with child protection expert Mark Williams-Thomas who compared paedophiles to leopards: they do not change their spots. They are characterised by furtiveness and cunning; merely pleading that they have changed and showing a police record that they have not re-offended may mean only that they have not been caught.
This proposition is supported by a 2003 Home Office study which showed that recidivism among sex offenders was five times higher than the reconviction rate.
None of which resolves the future of the Human Rights Act. Despite the claims of its detractors, its very existence serves to protect people. Indeed, only this week, Community Care has carried articles on how the act can be used to fight social care spending cuts and support service users.
The issue is that the temptation to make exceptions to the law - however much we dislike paedophilia - is a dangerous road on which to travel. If paedophiles were denied the right to appeal, who would be next?
Read social worker and solicitor Allan Norman's view: Can paedophiles change their spots?
Picture: Rex Features
