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What is sexual communication with a child?
The offence of engaging in communication with a child under the age of 16 for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification came into force in April 2017. Section 67 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 inserted a new offence into the Sexual Offences Act 2003, at section 15A, criminalising sexual communication with a child.
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The offence is committed where:
“A person aged 18 or over intentionally communicates with a child under 16, who the adult does not reasonably believe to be 16 or over, if the communication is sexual or if it is intended to encourage the child to make a communication which is sexual”.
The offence is committed, whether or not the child communicates with an adult. Communication must be sexual or intended to encourage a child to make a sexual communication. Sexual is defined as if any part of it relates to sexual activity or a reasonable person would consider any part of the communication to be sexual.
Exchanges of sexual chats, emails or conversations in chat rooms between adults and child, if the age of the child is clear, will almost certainly be deemed criminal and, if exposed or complained about, result in a charge.
What amounts to a defence?
A defence maybe available if it can be shown that it was reasonably believed that the person with whom he/she was communicating was over the age of 16. This can be shown in different ways.
It will be for the accused to demonstrate that he had a reasonable belief that the child was aged 16 or older and that he/she had taken all reasonable precautions to determine the age of the child before engaging in sexual communications with them.
Vigilante groups
It is becoming more and more increasingly common for individuals or groups of individuals who are members of the public to use online to uncover or catch alleged paedophilies involved in online child sexual abuse or interested in meeting children for the purposes of such abuse. It is often the case that these groups will apprehend the accused and call the police.
It is important for anyone subjected to this to not make any admissions or comment on their behaviour whilst being detained.
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