'Balance must be right if we're to get the best child protection'

John Wadham, director of Liberty:

"The Sex Offences Bill includes some welcome measures, as well as some that raise concern. But there is a real danger is that in the pressure on Government to 'get tough' on very specific offences, we lose sight of the
best ways to make all our children safer.

"We must not focus only on having the "toughest child protection laws" in
the world: we must have the best child protection. The two are not necessarily the same thing.

"Provisions like those on grooming risk feeding fear and mistrust in ways that distract from the serious business of child protection - which is about openness, education and talking frankly with our children. As the case of Victoria Climbie and so many other child protection deaths have shown, we need to look out for our neighbours' children - not be scared even to speak to them for fear of being accused of an offence".

Extending paedophile offences:
grooming etc
People can already be arrested for conspiring, attempting, or inciting others to commit a paedophile offence. The danger is that a law going further would mean prosecuting people not for anything they've done but for things someone thinks they might do - because someone is second-guessing
their thoughts.

If you make people afraid that talking to your neighbour's children could be seen as a paedophile offence, you actually make those children less safe. Neighbours and communities are important to keeping our children safe - both from abuse by strangers and, sadly, from the far greater risk of abuse in their own homes.

The proposal to issue (civil) sex offenders orders against people who have committed no sexual offence - or offence of any kind - is dangerous in the extreme. Innocent people might find themselves branded as sex offenders by these orders, on the basis of suspicion, malicious allegations or mere
tittle-tattle. Any need for action here is already covered by the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

'Sexual activity with children' offence
The sexual activity with children offence has the potential to close a dangerous loophole in the law. We welcome the intention but it is an offence that must be carefully defined.

Rape trials - the honest belief defence
The honest belief defence in rape can justifiably be moved to require a
"reasonable, honest belief" - but the definition of reasonable must itself
stay within the bounds of reason. A sensible requirement for honest and reasonable belief in consent would help ensure that everyone knows what constitutes rape. It would thus also help ensure that the guilty are
convicted and the innocent acquitted.


Annual re-registering on the sex offences register
We have no problem with this proposal; but it does highlight the fact that the Register needs drastic reform. Only a fraction of the 18,500 names currently on it pose a real threat to children or the wider public. The
Register should be cleared of (for example) people involved in consensual gay sex, so that the Register is properly focussed on people who pose a real danger, and so the authorities who use the Register and monitor those on it can concentrate on real dangers.

Registration should be by order of a judge at the time of sentencing: the judge should decide whether or not the offender is a risk and only if they are should they be put on the register. The judge knows the details of the case, of any previous convictions, will have any psychiatric and other reports etc, and so is the person best placed to make this vital assessment.

This approach would protect those who pose no risk from being on the register, and ensure that precious police resources are targeted at those who are most dangerous.

Unfortunately, the register still contains the names, for example, or people involved in consensual gay sex when over 18 from before the law changed.

Other measures - summary
We also welcome plans:
- to ensure equality in the laws between homosexual and heterosexual sex,
which are long overdue.

- to target people who exploit child prostitutes. The measure needs to be
drawn to target adults who are living off a child prostitute's earnings
(rather than e.g. two 16-year-old runaways).

- to protect people who are cannot possibly give consent (notably with a severe mental illness or learning disability) from sexual abuse

- the new distinction between sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault (by penetration)