Rights of the child ‘must be paramount’

OUR Constitution must copper-fasten the protection of children from those who would seek to harm them, according to Fergus Finlay, Barnardos chief executive.

“Children must be off limits to adults when it comes to sexual activity. Without in a sense wishing to make a trivial comparison, if you make an illegal right turn, or break the speed limit by five miles per hour, you are guilty of an offence, and no amount of pleading that you made an honest mistake will do you any good.

“It is absurd in that context that an adult can have sex with a 14 or 15-year-old girl and then plead that he thought she was older — and then compound the long-term damage and trauma by reducing the child to the status of a defendant in the witness box,” he said in a submission to the joint committee on the Constitutional amendment on children.

“Such protection in both constitutional and legislative terms must supersede any plea of ‘honest mistake’. Taking advantage of the pressures that many young people find themselves under when it comes to dress, make-up and the like should never be capable of being proffered as an excuse.”

Mr Finlay said the charity accepted that finding the balance between protecting children from those seeking to exploit and/or abuse them, and not to penalise those teenagers engaging in consensual sexual experimentation was difficult.

“In our daily work we seek to encourage young people not to engage in sexual relationships at an early age, because of the impact it can have on their health physically and psychologically, and indeed because of the risk of exposure to sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies.

“However, in cases of consensual sex between young people and more importantly teenage pregnancies, we would not support the possible prosecution of these young parents. Barnardos believes that the State should not make it more difficult for young parents to provide a stable and caring environment for their child,” he said.

However, it was important to realise that relationships among teenagers can be exploitative too, with one in four abusers identified in the Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland Report, he said.