Baroness Casey (former victims’ commissioner Louise Casey) has recommended changing the law on child sexual offences so adults who have sex with children are charged with rape. The recommendation appears in the cross-bench peer’s ‘National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse’ (the so-called grooming gangs report), which was published yesterday. The report prompted the government to announce a national inquiry.
Under current law in the UK, the age of consent is 16 and any sexual activity with a child below that age is a criminal offence. But offenders who have the consent in fact (if not in law) of their victims are charged with sexual activity with a child under section 9 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, rather than rape.
Casey writes: ‘The intention behind this is largely aimed at avoiding criminalising relationships between teenagers or people who are very close in age, or criminalising someone who reasonably believed a child was older than they were, while still protecting children from exploitation.
‘However, in practice, this audit saw this nuance in law being used to the benefit of much older men who had groomed vulnerable children for sex.’
The baroness recommends the law in England and Wales should be changed so adults who intentionally penetrate the vagina, anus or mouth of a child under 16 receive mandatory charges of rape.
She argues this approach would mirror that taken in countries such as France and reduce uncertainty around consent. A ‘Romeo and Juliet clause’ to prevent criminalising teenagers in relationships with each other should also be considered, the said.
‘We need to see children as children’, Casey adds. ‘We let them down when we treat or see them as adults, especially in relation to safeguarding issues and the treatment of children in the criminal justice system. We must tighten up the law to reduce uncertainty which adults can exploit to avoid or reduce the punishments that should be imposed for their crimes.’
