Criminal Law Bill 2014 to tackle Child Grooming – Corcoran Kennedy

Fine Gael TD for Laois/Offaly and Member of the Oireachtas Justice Committee, Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, has today (Thursday), welcomed the publication of the new Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2014 which includes her own bill on child grooming.

“ The new Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2014 will make wide ranging changes to the law which particularly protect children exposed to sexual abuse and violence. My own Bill, the Child Grooming Bill has been incorporated into the Criminal Law Bill and it proposes that soliciting and paying for the purpose of sexually exploiting a child; inviting sexual touching; sexual activity in the presence of a child or causing a child to watch sexual activity, as well as using the internet or mobile phones to facilitate sexual exploitation of a child will all be criminal offences.

“The Child Grooming Bill proposes to strengthen the existing offence of meeting a child for the purpose of sexual exploitation. I wanted to ensure that people intending to sexually exploit children be answerable to the law, even if they are discovered before they carry out an act. These measures accept that children can now be approached and targeted online, as well as face to face.

“ The sanctions for these new offences include both fines and prison sentences ranging in most cases from to 10 to 14 years.

“As well as tackling child grooming, this Bill is extremely important as it proposes to tackle child pornography and it will criminalise the purchase of sexual services. If passed, Ireland will be joining countries like Sweden by making it an offence to purchase sexual services and there will be a second, more serious offence for buying sexual services from a trafficked person.   In both cases, the persons selling the sexual service will not be subject to an offence. The demand from men who buy sex fuels both the trade in trafficked women and girls, and it sustains a prostitution industry worth an estimated €180 million a year in Ireland. This Bill will tackle this industry head on.

“The Bill, when enacted, will implement the EU Directive on ‘Combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography’ as well as paving the way for Ireland to ratify the Council of Europe ‘Convention on the protection of children against sexual exploitation and abuse’.

“The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2014 is a wide reaching Bill which also looks at protecting vulnerable people, assessing the risk of sex offenders and many other measures. I welcome the publication of this Bill and commend Minister Fitzgerald for not only tackling these difficult issues, but for taking on board the input of stakeholders involved in the area.”