InBrief

The Crimes Amendment (Sexual Offences) Bill 2008�was yesterday introduced in the Legislative Council by Attorney General Hatzistergos and has received�its second reading speech.�

The object of the Bill, as provided by the�explanatory notes, is to amend the Crimes Act 1900 and other criminal legislation as follows:

• to provide for an aggravated offence of having sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 10 years, with a maximum penalty of imprisonment for life;
• to make kidnapping (or deprivation of liberty) an additional circumstance in which sexual intercourse with a child aged between 10 and 16 years is treated as an aggravated offence;
• to make breaking and entering, and kidnapping (or deprivation of liberty), additional circumstances in which sexual intercourse without a person’s consent is treated as an aggravated offence;
• to create a new offence of aggravated act of indecency, with a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment, where an act of indecency is committed with or towards a child under the age of 16 years and the offender knows that the act of indecency is being filmed for the purposes of the production of child pornography;
• to increase the maximum penalty for the offence of indecent assault against a child aged between 10 and 16 years;
• to create a new offence of meeting a child, or travelling to meet a child, following grooming that child for sexual purposes;
• to increase the maximum penalty for the aggravated offence of causing a person to enter into or remain in sexual servitude;
• to create a specific statutory offence of inciting a person to commit a sexual offence (carrying the same maximum penalty as the offence incited);
• to increase the maximum penalty for the offence of receiving money or a material benefit derived from child prostitution, where the offence involves a child under the age of 14 years;
• to increase the maximum penalty for possession of child pornography and make other changes to child pornography offences;
• to create new offences of voyeurism and filming a person’s private parts and to transfer to the Crimes Act 1900 and extend the existing offence of filming a person engaged in a private act;
• to make various changes with respect to the sentencing of sex offenders and young offenders;
• to provide for other miscellaneous matters (including consequential and savings and transitional matters).

27 November 2008