The Government intends to rush emergency legislation through the Oireachtas next Wednesday, following the High Court's decision yesterday to release a 41-year-old man who had sex with a 12-year-old girl. The man had plied the girl with alcohol before he had sex with her when she woke up to be sick. He was jailed for three years in 2004 after pleading guilty to unlawful carnal knowledge of an underage girl, writes Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent
He applied to the High Court to be released from prison following a Supreme Court judgment in another case last week. The Supreme Court struck down the 1935 law on statutory rape as unconstitutional. Under this law, any man was automatically guilty of a crime if he had sex with a girl under 15.
The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Attorney General's Office have still not been able to decide on the necessary legal changes in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling. Until the law is changed, adults who have sex with minors can only face a maximum of 14 years in jail rather than life, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell conceded last night.
Child protection groups have expressed deep concern.
Paul Gilligan, chief executive of the Irish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, said society faced a "child-protection crisis". Ellen O'Malley-Dunlop, chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, called on the Government to "take immediate action".
The Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting last night was told by Government Chief Whip Tom Kitt that the Dáil and Seanad would sit next Wednesday to deal with the legislation.
Earlier, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern had been more cautious, saying that the Oireachtas would "probably" be recalled from its week-long break if the Cabinet had agreed the legislation. Accusing the Government of "an appalling example of incompetence", an outraged Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said he was "appalled" by the ruling "which releases a pervert back into society".
Clearly facing pressure, the Government, which initially was confident that no one would actually be freed from jail, is accelerating the introduction of new legislation.
Meanwhile, the Director of Public Prosecutions will have to amend charges laid against up to 20 men so that they can be charged with sexual assault and harassment, rather than statutory rape.
It emerged yesterday that the DPP James Hamilton continued to use the statutory rape provision which was struck down, even after the Supreme Court ruled last July that a man could argue that he genuinely had not known the girl's age.
"I can only assume that it is because he had no reason to believe that the laws would be struck down. Neither did anybody else," Mr McDowell told The Irish Times last evening.
Despite media coverage of the Supreme Court case a year ago, Mr McDowell said his department had not been aware that the constitutionality of the law dealing with sex with minors was under threat.