Irish Supreme Court Strikes Down Age of Sexual Consent Law

LifeSiteNews ^ | 5/29/06 | Gudrun Schultz

[newzjunkey]

This law applied to a case with a circumstance which it should have considered and perhaps made an allowance regarding. Unfortunately the court has opened the door for cases which should be criminal under the law such as the 38 yr old and the 12 yr old.

Seems he clearly wanted to know if she was legal age, she lied and apparently admitted it in court.

[newzjunkey]

She was one year (or just months) younger than legal in Ireland and claimed to be two years older. Such deceit could be considered a mitigating circumstance where ages are so relatively close. He wasn't 28 or 38 and since he asked of her age he seemed mindful or the law and lacked a necessary criminal intent. Had she told the truth and he gone ahead with the act, I'd be more supportive of being charged.

[mrhansen]

"new laws could strengthen the protection of children, however, by including young boys in the legislation, a group left largely unprotected by the 1935 law, reported the Emigrant."

The catholic priests in the area must be outraged.

[Blackirish]

Then throw out the charges not the law.

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Yep...common sense is a good thing.

[68skylark]

Stop me if I getting into a topic that I should leave alone. But here in the U.S. we've had a very long and terrible series of scandals involving Catholic priests and boys. Has Ireland had similar problems? Hopefully not.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

Yeah, just as bad, if not worse.

[68skylark]

I'm sorry to hear it. I'd say it's time for the law to protect boys as well as girls.

[em2vn]

Sounds like he knew her rather well.

[stylin19a]

hey...thanx for not hammerin me missing that....
sheesh !

[Northern Alliance]

Ridiculous. If she lied about her age (and lets face it, some 12 year old girls look 18), and admitted it in court, how can he be charged?

Yep, ridiculous. But that is exactly the situation in Canada, where "I didn't/couldn't know..." is specifically prohibited as a defence in statuatory rape cases. Plus, the age of consent is different for boys and girls.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

That bastard was released from from prison:

Man who had sex with 12-yr-old freed

Opposition parties asks why emergency leglisation wasn't drafted in event of the ruling:

Uproar in Dáil following release of man guilty of statutory rape

[Irish_Thatcherite]

I can't find any detailed links about this, so I read through Article 40 of Bunreacht na hEireann, trying to find where/how the judgment was derived; I can guess it's because he wasn't allowed to use the fact he wasn't aware of the girls age as defence in court, further more the admission of under age sex is automatically regarded as a crime, irrespective of the circumstances - I guess it was interpreted as not having a fair trial, thus he was detained illegally.

[wagglebee]

I guess to get arrested and kept in jail in Ireland, you need to refuse to stop smoking in the pubs.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

That isn't an exaggeration! The morality is inverted.