State appeal to be heard tomorrow

THE Supreme Court will tomorrow hear the State’s appeal against the High Court decision this week to free the 41-year-old man who had been jailed for three years in late 2004 after pleading guilty to the statutory rape of a 12-year-old girl.

The man, identified only as Mr A, was released on Tuesday in light of the Supreme Court decision last week which struck down as unconstitutional the 1935 law outlawing statutory rape. The 1935 law (Section 1.1 of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 1935) had made it an automatic offence for a man to have sex with a girl under 15 years of age.

However, the Supreme Court, in a case brought last week, declared it unconstitutional on a number of grounds. Those grounds included that, in cases of consensual intercourse, Section 1.1 did not allow for a defence of genuine belief that the victim was older.