Kazakhstan paedophile to be chemically castrated after country introduces new punishment for sex offenders

A paedophile in Kazakhtan is set to be the first in the country to be chemically castrated.

It comes months after a new law was passed permitting the method as punishment for paedophilia.

The unnamed man from the Turkestan region is to undergo an injection supervised by the country’s health ministry, officials announced.

President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has allocated £20,500 for some 2,000 injections on men who commit child sex attacks this year.

Deputy health minister Lyazzat Aktayeva said: “At the moment there has been one request for chemical castration in accordance with a court ruling.”

Kazakhstan introduced a new law on chemical castration at the start of this year.

"Funds have been allocated for more than 2,000 injections," revealed Aktayeva.

When the law was passed, senator Byrganym Aitimova said that castration would be “temporary”, consisting of a “one-time injection” based on “the necessity of preventing the man from (committing) sexual violence”.

Child sex crimes also carry prison sentences of up to 20 years in Kazakhstan.

Unlike surgical castration, chemical castration does not prevent a person from experiencing sexual urges indefinitely.

Sceptics argue it does not necessarily prevent future attacks.

Reports say child rapes in Kazakhstan doubled to around 1,000 a year in the period between 2010 and 2014.

Kazakhstan will use Cyproterone, a steroidal anti-androgen developed for fighting cancer, say reports.

It comes months after the UK Government said it was considering making chemical castration for convicted paedophiles and sex offenders more available.

Justice Minister Phillip Lee asked officials to consider ways of making this medical method more common, amid concerns rehabilitation courses by psychologists are not effective enough the Daily Express reports.

The method - which suppresses sexual urges - is already available to some sex offenders both in prisons and the community as part of a range of measures to reduce reoffending.