Child grooming for sex ‘needs lengthy jail term’

Grooming children for sexual exploitation should carry a maximum prison term of 14 years, a new law proposed by a backbench TD demands.

Oireachtas justice committee member Marcella Corcoran Kennedy said the move was needed to stop abusers using “legal confusion” on the matter to escape punishment.

The Fine Gael TD is backed by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and the Immigrant Council of Ireland, and says that in the past two years, some 30 children have been identified as being trafficked in Ireland for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Ms Corcoran Kennedy says the law needs to be tightened-up to prevent a situation happening in Ireland like the Rotherham scandal in Britain.