14 years in jail for bid to groom a child
Government yesterday confirmed the high-profile legal change, which TDs said will “incredibly” only now make child grooming a specific offence, after UN pressure to address the worrying gap in existing defences.
While people who contact minors “two or more” times to coerce them into sex can currently be arrested under the 1998 Child Trafficking and Pornography Act, gardaí can only act if they physically meet their victims.
The extension of the current system, which campaign groups said is essential to preventing abuse, was detailed in a Private Members’ Bill put before the Dáil by Fine Gael TD Marcella Corcoran Kennedy yesterday.
Responding to the bill, Government said it will be subsumed into a wider sexual offences bill due in the coming days, which will among other matters state:
- Potential abusers will be jailed for 14 years if they send just one message via social media or by text attempting to coerce a child into sex, even if no physical meeting takes place — these messages will not have to include a “sexually explicit” advance or material if there is a clear intent to groom a child, as these blunt approaches “do not generally feature in sophisticated grooming”.
- Irish citizens who groom a child online before travelling abroad to meet them will be able to be charged in this country, regardless of where the offence occurs.
- Making a child watch pornography in order to “desensitise” them to sex for the purposes of grooming in real life will also be considered a serious sexual offence.
Ms Corcoran Kennedy said the proposed legal changes are based on the unanimous views of the Oireachtas justice committee which was asked by former justice minister Alan Shatter to examine flaws in Ireland’s sexual offences laws two years ago.
Government chief whip Paul Kehoe, who was speaking on behalf of Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald, told the Dáil that while all parties are backing the bill — which will now be sent to committee stage — it may not be enacted as the changes will be subsumed into the imminent sexual offences bill.
While criticising the “regrettable” delay in the sexual offences bill itselfFianna Fáil justice spokesperson Niall Collins said “everybody is on the same page” on the need to make child grooming an offence.
In a joint statement welcoming the planned changes the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, the Immigrant Council of Ireland and Ruhama said the move “sends out the message to abusers that they have no place to hide” and will ensure “those who are guilty cannot escape justice by creating confusion with legal arguments in court”.
The move comes a fortnight after the UN’s child rights committee gave Ireland four months to address the child grooming gap.
