Clause 49 - Paying for sexual services of a child
Sexual Offences Bill [Lords]
10:00 am
Ms Sandra Gidley (Romsey, Liberal Democrat)
I do not propose to repeat at length the arguments put by the hon. Member for Lancaster and Wyre (Mr. Dawson), which we Liberal Democrats agree with wholeheartedly. I just want to voice my concern that in the other place the Government, responding to similar concerns, placed great weight on the age of consent as a factor. I support the hon. Gentleman when he says that consent often should not be a factor in such cases because prostitution and child pornography are both coercive in nature and not something that 16 or 17-year-olds, or anyone of any age, indulge in if they have any choice. Sometimes people do such things because they think that they have no choice; they have no money, or they may have left home. It is all about coercion.
The emphasis on the age of consent, and the fact that age must be proved, is of concern because the onus is on the prosecution to establish the offender's belief in the age of the child. There are concerns that that could result in fewer prosecutions or in the passing of more lenient sentences, because of the difficulty of establishing age. So we support the amendments, which clarify that the Bill is really about protecting children of all ages and that includes those between the ages of 16 and 18.