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Legal Consequences |
Legal consequnces
Unlike other forms of compulsive harmful behaviour, such as alcohol or drug dependency, or self-harming (cutting), accessing child-porn or seducing a child online is itself illegal. Not only is each individual image or film evidence of a crime scene, your access of them is another crime being committed. This leaves you vulnerable to serious legal consequences.
Will I go to prison?
The following information is taken from the Sentencing Guidelines Council draft paper on sentencing for sexual offences:
Key Points
· Victims suffer physical/and or psychological harm
· Rape now includes penile penetration of the mouth, anus or vagina
· Sentencing will take into consideration the offender’s potential harm to society
· There is no defence of consent where sexual activity is with a child under 13 years of age
· Non-consensual sexual activity raises culpability
· Planning an offence raises culpability
· Familial child sex offences have a higher minimum penalty
· Being in a position of trust or authority over a sexual victim has higher minimum penalties, plus additional offences aimed at sexual activity with children over the Age of Consent but under 18 years old
· Grooming type offences are judged on the intended outcome and sophistication of preparation
· Production and distribution of pornographic images attracts higher minimum penalties
· Allowing accidental access to indecent images is an aggravating factor
· Being involved in commercial sexual exploitation, even as a customer, attracts higher penalties.
· Offenders will be required to register on the Sex Offenders Register and may be subject to other restricting orders.
Maximum Penalties
Where no age is indicated, assume that maximum penalty is recommended regardless of age
Life
14 years
10 years
5 years
Rape
Causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity – non penetration
Sexual assault
Abuse of a position of trust: sexual activity with a child
Assault by penetration
Sexual activity with a child [ostensible consent]
Causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent [child aged 13-16] – non penetration
Abuse of a position of trust: causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity
Causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent [child aged 13-16] –penetration
Causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity [ostensible consent]
Engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child
Abuse of trust: sexual activity in the presence of a child
Causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity - penetration
Sexual activity with a child family member
Causing a child to watch a sexual act
Abuse of a position of trust: causing a child to watch a sexual act
Committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence [kidnapping or false imprisonment]
Inciting a child family member to engage in sexual activity
Meeting a child following sexual grooming
Indecent photographs of children – possession only
Paying for the sexual services of a child
Causing or inciting child prostitution or pornography
Committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence
Indecent photographs of children
Minimum Penalties (recommended for sexual activity with a child under 13)
· Rape – 13 years
· Assault by penetration – 5 years (13 years if there is a breach of trust, multiple offenders etc)
· Causing or inciting a child to masturbate him/herself – 5 years
· Causing a child to watch a penetrative sexual act – moving image 18 months, still image 12 months
· Meeting a child following grooming (with intention of penetrative sex) – 4 years
· Taking indecent photos – erotic/non-penetrative 2 years, penetrative/sadistic 6 years
· Paying for the sexual services of a child – penetrative 12 years, non-penetrative 7 years
If you think that this will not apply to you because you’re not likely to get caught (you might live alone for instance, or you’re good at encrypting your computer and storage devices, it’s worth remembering that most people arrested and convicted for these offences never planned to get caught – detection was the result of a random or accidental sequence of events which were never anticipated.
Extreme (Adult) Pornography
There is a maximum of 5 years imprisonment for possession of extreme pornography which is considered grossly offensive and threatens life or serious sexual injury, or involves animals (bestiality) or a human corpse (necrophilia). A prison sentence of two or more years will also mean you have to register on the Sex Offenders Register.
Prison Experience
Could you cope with prison life? The following examples are drawn from real accounts of life in prison as a convicted sex offender:
· you’re given the option of going on the segregation wing which will forever indicate that you are ‘a nonce’, so when you transfer between prisons, you’re likely to be ‘outed’ and at risk of violence.
· if you choose not to go on the segregated wing, a prison officer may leak your crime to other prisoners, making you vulnerable to violence.
· on the segregated wing, you will be living with habitual (adult and child) sex offenders – you may find yourself hearing accounts of child abuse that are too disturbing for you.
· if your food is prepared away from the segregated wing, you can expect it to be contaminated with bodily fluids or shit.
· when you move around the prison (going to the exercise yard, for example), you will be jeered at, threatened and verbally abused by other prisoners.
· you’re likely to be transferred between prisons around the country – this makes family visits more difficult and less frequent.
· every morning when you wake up, the first thing you will see will be a cell, and not your home.
Probation Experience
About half of your sentence will be spent in prison – the remainder is likely to be following release back into the community on a Probation ‘Licence’. This means you will be given a list of rules that you must follow and allocated a Probation Officer (sometimes called an ‘Offender Manager’) who will monitor your adherence to the rules. If you break the rules, your Probation Officer can arrange for you to be returned to prison, possibly for the remainder of your sentence. Don’t expect to return home on your release under Licence, especially if you have children – most, if not all, Licences for men convicted of sexual offences contain a rule that says you must not reside in a household where there are children present – you can expect to be ordered to live in a Probation Hostel, which is a halfway house between prison and ordinary life (you’ll be living exclusively with other ex-prisoners, who may know of your offences and you will be subject to a curfew at night). Finally, your Probation Officer may insist that you participate in a Sex Offender Treatment Programme which is group based and can last up to nearly two years.
You will need to attend a local police station on your release to sign on the Sex Offender Register – you may be in this for a set time, 10 years is quite common, or for life. Every time you change address, or even go on holiday, you may need to notify the police of your movements. At the moment it’s not too easy to get a list of who is on the register, but the media are campaigning for this list to be made more public, and in some areas women can check if their partners, or the men they are dating, are on the list.
Future Employment and Disclosure of Offences
Few men keep their jobs when they are convicted for child-sex offences (regardless of whether they were internet based or not), so it’s likely that you would have to find new work. Your Probation Licence will restrict what type of work you can do (ie no computers with internet access or working with children). Does your current job require you to work in an office with internet access? This could be a serious problem for you in the future if you continue to access child sexual material and are caught. You may also be required to disclose your offences to any potential employer if they ask during the recruitment process.
TOP TIP: Consider how you would feel if you were sent to prison, released on probation and had to sign the Sex Offender Register. How would you cope with the threat of harm in prison? What would it be like not to have any control over where you lived and to have to report your activities to a Probation Officer, and then be required to attend a group based programme where you disclose your offences? If you keep your child-porn life secret now, how would it feel to risk exposure through the opening up of the Sex Offender Register or when you have to disclose your offences when applying for work?
© Chris Willoughby 2008-
