Protection of child sex victims under review

THE Oireachtas Committee on Child Protection will investigate the possibility that the Constitution now provides better protection to a person accused of child abuse rather than the victim.

Fianna Fáil TD Peter Power, the chairman of the committee, said at its inaugural meeting yesterday that the Supreme Court decision striking down the statutory rape law had “unleashed a broad range of complex and fundamental issues”.

In May, the court struck down the law which made it an automatic offence to have sex with a girl under 15, saying it was unconstitutional because it did not allow for a defence of honest mistake about the victim’s age.