13-year-olds can have sex legally,says top cop in UK

by admin
November 29th, 2006

A police chief called on Monday for the age of consent to be reduced to 13.Chief superintendent Clive Murray said some children were being unfairly labelled criminals because of the current age of 16.

The law fails to distinguish between abuse and ‘youthful natural instinct’, according to Murray, president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents. He pointed to countries such as Spain, where 13-year-olds can have sex legally.“Why is there this contradiction with societies we regard as similar to our own?” he asked and added that “society had changed” since the age of consent was set at 16 in 1885.Hugh McKinney, of the National Family Campaign, said the proposal was “nothing short of a paedophiles’ charter”.

Earlier this month, Terry Grange, chief constable of Dyfed-Powys Police, suggested that men as old as 30 who have sex with underage girls should not necessarily be classed as paedophiles.He argued there was a difference between cases in which the girl is barely in her teens, or younger and those where the girl is nearly 16.A children’s charity reacted angrily to the statements of Grange, the spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers on child protection and managing sex offenders

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Grange had said men who had sex with children should not be classed as paedophiles if their victim was between 13 and 15.Grange also told the newspaper that the law on child pornography should apply accordingly. “It’s much more of an issue for me if a child is under 13,” he said.“I think the closer they get to 16, the more it becomes a grey area and I think everyone in the field of dealing with sexual health and sexual activity acknowledges that.”

But his comments were rejected by Kidscape, a charity focusing on bullying and child sexual abuse.Spokeswoman Michele Elliott said: “The definition of a paedophile is a person who is sexually attracted to children. In this country we class this as children who are under 16. I think he is being irresponsible, we have been having this debate for ages. He seems to be only talking about child protection for those under the age of 13. I think he is misguided — it is not a grey area. I do understand what he is saying about 18-year-olds having sex with 15-year-olds — that cannot be classed as paedophilia — but the law has to do a broad sweep. As for the rest, I disagree with him entirely.”