Clause 20 - Abuse of position of trust: sexual activity in the presence of a child
Sexual Offences Bill [Lords]
3:00 pm
Mr Paul Goggins (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Wythenshawe and Sale East, Labour)
I shall try to respond briefly to the hon. Gentleman's challenge by giving him an example. A teacher sets out on a day trip with a number of the children at the school where he works, and this is an occasion when the spouses and partners of the staff are invited too—on the face of it, an enjoyable day out. The teacher's partner travels with the teacher and during the course of the day they kiss each other in a very sexual way: they have a passionate kiss in front of the 15-year-old children who are under the care of the teacher. The teacher knows that the children are watching, but he does not engage in the kiss to get sexual gratification from the fact that he knows that they are watching; it is a sexual kiss with his partner that is part of their relationship.
I would argue that that is an inappropriate way to behave; it is probably unprofessional, and no doubt such behaviour would be dealt with by the school authorities. However, that is very different from a situation in which the teacher stays behind after class with three pupils to give them extra tuition and starts to masturbate, knowing that the pupils are watching him. That would be for the purpose of sexual gratification.
We want to be clear. We want to capture an offence in which the fact that children are present and watching the sexual activity gives rise to the offender's sexual gratification. We do not want to cover any other sexual activity that may be going on. I hope that that practical example will demonstrate why in our view it is important that the ''sexual gratification'' wording remains.