MINISTER of Justice Delroy Chuck says that while the parliamentary committee which reviewed sexual offences legislation rejected increasing the age of consent, they recommended legislation to prevent the criminalisation of children.

“The committee was of the view that the age of consent should remain at 16 years, and a provision should be included in the law to prevent the criminalisation of children where they willingly engaged in sexual activities with each other,” Chuck told the House of Representatives.

He said that, accordingly, it was agreed that: (i) there should be a close-in age range of four years for the exception to apply; (ii) where both parties are under 17 years old, they would be sent to child diversion or dealt with by such other order under the Child Care and Protection Act; (iii) in respect of children under the age of 12 years old (who cannot commit an offence under the law), provisions should be included in the Child Care and Protection Act that allows the Children’s Court to make an appropriate order; and (iv) for persons up to the age of 19 years, the options would be counselling, probation or other available remedy.

The minister was opening the debate on the report of a joint select Committee of Parliament which was appointed to complete the review of the Sexual Offences Act, along with the Offences Against the Person Act, the Domestic Violence Act, and the Child Care and Protection Act on Tuesday at Gordon House.

The report was tabled in the House in December 2018, but is just now being debated following which a vote will be taken on whether it should be forwarded to the Cabinet for approval.

Chuck noted that it was also recommended that the penalties for offences in all four pieces of legislation should be reviewed and increased to make them a deterrent.

“This is particularly where the criminal acts are committed against the most vulnerable groups in the society. Such offences will be treated as an aggravating offence which may attract an additional penalty, for example a mandatory minimum of 20 years,” he said.

He also informed the House that the committee, which he had chaired, also recommended that a new offence of stalking should be created.

Other issues raised by the minister in opening the debate were:

HIV

That the committee also recommended that it should be a criminal offence for someone to wilfully or recklessly infect a partner with any sexually transmissible disease that can inflict serious bodily harm to that partner but, like the issue of abortion, it should be considered by Parliament as a whole. He said that the intention is to clarify the law by codifying the common law position.

“I recently received a position paper from the National Family Planning Board which is opposing the view that the law should be amended to provide for the specific offence of wilful transmittal of an STD. Copies of this paper will be made available to this House for your consideration,” he said.

Sexual offenders abroad to be registered:

The committee recommended that it must be made mandatory for sex offenders who have relocated or returned to Jamaica register in the Sex Offenders Registry in Jamaica. Failure to register will constitute an offence which may be punishable by imprisonment.

Marital rape

Section 5 of the Sexual Offences Act provides that certain conditions must be met before it is determined that a husband can rape his wife. The committee recommended that those conditions must be removed to retain one qualification for rape, that is non-consensual sex.

The Domestic Violence Act

The committee recommended that the Domestic Violence Act should be amended to provide for enhanced protection orders which would provide a range of remedies.

Accordingly, the committee was of the view that a separate joint select committee of Parliament should be established to carry out a comprehensive review of the Act on its own to ensure that the legislation as well as the institutional and social framework necessary for the successful implementation of all aspects of the legislation could be dealt with.