With sexual offences, including sex crimes against children, accounting for a third of the cases before the courts, a prosecutor has called for the legislation to be amended so that men who rape children older than 14 can be jailed for more than ten years.
The submission has come from Principal State Counsel Krystal Delaney who was speaking as the No. 5 Supreme Court dealt with a father who confessed to two counts of having sexual intercourse with his 17-year-old daughter without her consent (incest) and one count of serious indecency.
He was represented by attorney Faith Greaves.
Delaney noted the maximum sentence for unlawful sexual intercourse with a child 14 years or younger was life imprisonment but the maximum sentence for sexual intercourse with a girl over 14 years was ten years. (HLE)