Disclosure Timescale on CSA Cases

[TrickyB4]

Following on from the Tom Watson webchat thread, I am posting this petition here in the hope of getting some more signatures of support. In a small nutshell, prior to the 2003 SoA, the sentencing guidelines that accompanied the 1956 SoA included a clause against one of the offences stating " A prosecution for an offence committed under section 6 (or an attempt to commit that offence) must be commenced within 12 months of the alleged offence. The House of Lords has ruled that a charge of indecent assault cannot be used to bypass the time limit"

This means now that any adults disclosing abuse as children prior to 2003 may never receive the justice they are entitled to, because they did not disclose within 12 months of the offence happening (as these would be treated as of the offence being committed), This doesn't apply to all offences, just the one highlighted in the petition, however no CSA crime should ever have any sort of "disclosure timescale" included.

Please would you all be so kind as to add your name (if you don't want it public you can choose not o have your name on display) and share this where you can, this 12 months needs to be removed.

www.change.org/p/secretary-of-state-for-justice-rt-hon-chris-grayling-remove-the-12-month-disclosure-timescale-from-csa-sentencing-guidelines-2

Thank you all.

[prh47bridge]

The guidelines are set by the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service), not the CSA. And they are not responsible for this restriction. They are merely reporting its existence. The restriction is set by the Sexual Offences Act 1956 Schedule 2. Removing it would require a change in the law.

[LineRunner]

The CSA in the OP refers to child sexual abuse.

Are you emailing Tom Watson to follow this up with him, OP? It does seem a bizarre and dangerous anomaly.

[TrickyB4]

Hi prh47bridge & LineRunner, I have already contacted CPS regarding this, and as this relates to the sentencing guidelines corresponding to the SoA 1956, they have indicated that this is a matter for MoJ and not themselves. MoJ have advised that they are not able to amend the Law retroactively, as this would go against art 7 of ECHR, which is where I get a little confused. The actual Law in SoA 1956 (section 6) I am not looking to change, nor am I looking to increase or decrease the severity of the offense as the ECHR article states, I am merely challenging the 12 month timescale.

I have tried getting media attention for this to see if they would help (unsuccessfully), and have tried e-mailing MPs for help (again unsuccessfully as I am not a UK resident & therefore not in a constituency). I will definitely be contacting Tom Watson though, as this is a deeply prejudicial loophole which never should (in my opinion) have been added to any crime, let alone one which is a CSA crime. Hopefully if I can get more interest in the petition, (more auto e-mails to MoJ for each person that signs it) especially from Tom, this can be looked into & maybe even challenged by someone who isn't a small insignificant like myself :)