Sexual Offences

The Court of Appeal has upheld a 10-year sentence imposed on a man who entered into a coercive sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl. The girl had a child with the man during the abuse. The accused had pleaded guilty to one count of the defilement of a child and one count of sexual assault. De

A woman who suffered image-based abuse at the hands of her former partner has been awarded nearly £100,000 in the first civil case of its kind to come before the English courts. The woman had discovered that her partner had secretly filmed her naked on a number of occasions and uploaded the im

Juries in England and Wales are more likely to convict than acquit a defendant of rape, and this has been the case for at least 15 years, according to a large-scale analysis of all jury verdicts by University College London’s Professor Cheryl Thomas. The analysis found that the jury conviction

Women are able to recall details of sexual assault and rape with accuracy, even if they have drunk — or expected to drink — moderate amounts of alcohol, a new study claims. A study conducted at the University of Birmingham found that women who had drunk alcohol up to the legal limit for

Children who were conceived through rape will be recognised as victims of crime in landmark new legislation in England and Wales. The UK government yesterday announced it will amend its upcoming Victims Bill to clarify that these children are entitled to support from criminal justice agencies such a

The law in England and Wales must be toughened up to make intentionally deceiving a person into engaging in sexual activity a crime, according to a new report published today. The latest Criminal Law Reform Now Network (CLRN Network) report calls for a change to the law, which would make deceiving a

The Supreme Court has granted permission for a leapfrog appeal by the State in a case concerning the burden of proof for the "reasonable mistake" defence in child sexual offence cases. The High Court last summer ruled that a legislative provision requiring a defendant to prove on the balance of prob

Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal has upheld a 19-year prison sentence for offences committed by a father against his 12-day-old son. The court accepted that this was a stiff sentence, but found it reasonable given the nature of the acts in question, and given the appellant’s lack of re

The Supreme Court has allowed an appeal brought by an accused who claimed that the Court of Appeal failed to consider the totality principle in his case. The man had successfully argued in the Court of Appeal that the trial judge had erred in sentencing him for several indecent assault offences, but

Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal has determined that the appropriate sentence for a violent repeat rapist was 18 years, with an additional five-year extended custodial sentence. In reaching this decision, the court was conscious of the violence of the attack, the appellant’s attempts t

A member of the Northern Ireland Assembly has submitted a formal complaint to the Lady Chief Justice in connection with remarks made by a judge during a sexual assault hearing. The complaint centres on comments made by Judge Brian Sherrard KC in Dungannon Crown Court as he was sentencing a man who a

Government plans to combat domestic, sexual and gender-based violence will next year benefit from a record 22 per cent funding increase worth around €9 million. The Department of Justice launched its five-year "zero tolerance" strategy earlier this summer, containing 144 detailed actions to be

Catfishing — the practice of using fake photos on social media or dating apps to lure people into a relationship on false pretences — would become a criminal offence in Ireland under a proposed bill. Fianna Fáil senator Lisa Chambers, whose own photos were stolen and used on a dat

Scottish academics have called for judges to stop directing juries to take body language into account when assessing the credibility of witnesses. Sixty-four mock juries were set up for research, featuring a total of 863 participants. Half of them were shown a recorded rape trial while the remainder

New reforms to the law on consent, knowledge and belief in rape trials will require that an accused's defence that he believed the complainant was consenting has to be objectively reasonable. The Criminal Justice (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Bill 2022 will amend the fault or mental elemen