The country’s top law officer has been urged to consider using electronic tags to keep track of convicted sex offenders after they have been released from a north-east jail.
The call for action came after new figures revealed the full extent of unsolved sex crimes in Buchan.
In the past year alone, 28 offences have been reported to police in and around Peterhead, including three rapes. To date, just 15 of those have been solved.
The figures were released following a freedom of information request by Aberdeenshire councillor Sam Coull, who believes that inmates released from Peterhead Prison are choosing to settle in the north-east.
He says they may even be responsible for some of the sex crimes now being investigated by Grampian Police.
Mr Coull has been trying for two years to find out how many offences have been committed by prisoners after their release from the Buchan jail, which holds 300 sex offenders, including rapists and child-molesters.
The Scottish Prison Service says it would be too costly to produce the information.
Mr Coull has also been trying to find out how many police and social workers are involved in monitoring registered sex offenders.
It was revealed recently that more than 300 people on the sex offences register live in the north-east.
The town with the highest number was Peterhead, at 15, followed by Fraserburgh with nine. There are 100 registered offenders in Aberdeen.
Mr Coull said the only way to keep track of inmates from Peterhead was to tag them electronically upon release.
He has now written to Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini, asking her to consider the scheme.
“Assembling a picture of this problem has not been easy,” Mr Coull said. “But as far as I am aware, we only have a small number of police and social workers involved in keeping an eye on more than 300 registered sex offenders.
“Given that these crimes are unlikely to occur within office hours, I regard the current set-up as far too limited to be effective.”
He added: “There are good grounds to suspect that most of our sex crimes in the north-east relate to prisoner settlers and I would like to know if it is possible to have electronic tagging made a condition of release for those leaving Peterhead Prison.
“It seems to be the only way we will be able to keep track of these people.”
A spokeswoman at the Crown Office in Edinburgh declined to comment.
According to the latest figures released by Grampian Police, there have been 10 indecent assaults and nine “lewd and libidinous practices” reported in the Peterhead area since August last year.
The force is also investigating reports of a brothel in the area.
Nearly 800 sex crimes have been investigated by police in Aberdeenshire over the past three years and almost 40% of them remain unsolved.