OPPOSITION Member of Parliament Ernest Smith has called for 'more teeth' to be given to the Incest Punishment Act to encourage more responsible reporting by the media.

Smith's suggestion came during Wednesday's sitting of the joint select committee of parliament considering the Incest (Punishment) Act and the Offences Against the Person's Act.
According to Smith, measures should be put in place to ensure that the media did not report in ways that made it easy to determine the identity of the victim in the case. He said too often the way in which the story is carried left little guesswork as to who the victim was.

But committee chair and attorney general, Senator AJ Nicholson, told the committee that an amendment to the Evidence Act is now being considered by a team of experts, which would allow for the admission of evidence in court proceedings by live link. This, he said, would help in addressing the concern raised by Smith, even though it would prove expensive. In addition, Nicholson said the development of a victim's charter would also be helpful.

In the meantime, several concerns surrounding age limits were raised. These concerns arose from a provision in the Offences Against the Person Act legislation that seeks to abolish the presumption that a boy under the age of 14 years cannot be found guilty of rape, on the grounds that boys do not attain puberty until age 14.

Committee members while in agreement, pointed out that there was an anomaly as the 2004 Child Care and Protection Act states that no child under the age of 12 can be held criminally responsible for an offence.

Director of Public Prosecutions Kent Pantry said he was also concerned abut the anomaly as he could not see why under the Child Care and Protection Act, the penalty for carnally knowing and abusing a girl under 12 years of age attracted a life sentence, while carnally knowing and abusing a girl 12-16 years only attracted a seven-year sentence. According to the DPP, the abuse carried the same degree of devastation regardless of the females age, and the issue should be addressed.

Opposition member Olivia 'Babsy' Grange used the opening to reiterate the necessity of having the age of consent raised from 16 years to 18 years, arguing that at present it posed a contradiction.

Meanwhile, head of the Child Development Agency, Allison Anderson, who was among the representatives from several support groups, noted that if the age of consent was increased it was also expected that the age of criminal responsibility would go up.

In the meantime, the proposed reforms to the Offences Against the Persons Act will provide a statutory definition of rape and sexual intercourse, extending 'rape' beyond vaginal penetration by a penis. In addition, the offence of rape will become gender neutral, meaning it can now be committed by a male or female against both male and female. It will also address the thorny issue of marital rape and abolish the presumption that a boy under the age of 14 years cannot be found guilty of rape on the grounds that boys do not attain puberty until age 14.

The main areas of change for the Incest Punishment Act will be to create a single, gender-neutral incest offence by persons of 16 years and older, and broaden the scope of people who can be found guilty of the offence to include, among others, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces and people in loco parentis relationships [persons, not parents, in parental-type relationships with children].

It also provides for the re-classification of the offence of incest as a felony, with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment [as is the case for rape].

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