‘Sex with under-16 is not paedophilia’

LONDON: A senior British policeman has questioned UK policy over paedophilia, saying adults who have sex with girls above the age of 13 should not be classed as paedophiles.

In England, Wales and Scotland, anyone who has sex with a boy or girl under the age of 16 has committed an offence. The age in Northern Ireland is 17.

If the child is 13 or older and consenting, the offence is classed as “unlawful sexual intercourse”. But if they are under 13 the offence is rape.

“It’s much more of an issue for me if a child is under 13,” Dyfed and Powys Chief Constable Terry Grange, who is the Association of Chief Police Officers’ spokesman on child protection and managing sex offenders, told the Sunday Times.

In the United Kingdom , the age of consent is 16, but Grange says paedophiles should be classed as adults who had sex with children yet to undergo puberty.

“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,” said Grange.

He said it would not be possible to prosecute all boys who have sex with girls who are under 16 but over 12.

He said: “If you prosecute each and every time a boy has sex with a girl under 16 and above 12, then we’d be in the schools across Britain, and in the youth clubs across Britain pretty regularly because, since I’ve been alive, it’s been pretty normal. It’s what teenagers do.”

He said the age of consent was “artificial” and varied from culture to culture.

“The 16 age thing is an artificial barrier that we have in Britain. They have different artificial barriers in other countries,” he said.

But he said sex between a man over 20 and a girl under 13 was clearly rape and UK law reflected this.

Official government guidance on prosecuting suggests that teenagers who have sex when one of them is below 16 should not necessarily be prosecuted. He also questioned British child pornography policy. “Child porn is 12 and under,” he said. “For me, that sort of thing, paedophilia, is with prepubescent children.”

It is not the first time Grange has sparked debate over Britain’s child protection issues, arguing earlier this year that government policy on paedophiles was being dictated by tabloid newspapers.

“The last three years has been a litany of abandonment of any real strategic design in the Home Office for the management of sex offenders in favour of trying to find out what one particular tabloid newspaper wants,” Grange said.

Michelle Elliott, the director of charity Kidscape, which campaigns to keep children safe from harm or abuse, said, “Girls, nine, 10 and 11 are now post-pubescent. They’re wearing bras, they’re having their periods. They are no longer children in his definition. So I think he’s on very dicey ground here.”