Marcus Fakana gets prison sentence in Dubai.

But they were not in the uk were they they were in Dubai, so your strawman reply fails at the first hurdle.

London is in Britain last time I checked or has it moved country!! I don't think where the data centres are based has anything to with anything.

I don’t think anybody, let alone teens, bother looking up age of consent laws when they travel.

So, what, are you suggesting that people convicted of crimes in other countries are quashed or do not stand if they come back to or visit the uk.

Also, this is a London based forums not a British forum, that uses web server hosting providers DSC Limited, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform many of which are not based in the UK for back-end storage.

In England and Wales 17 year old girls do not need parental consent to embark on consensual sexual relationships.

You quoting that does not change that. There is no disrespect in two people choosing to date each other.

But not obeying the law, has ended up here, hasn't it?
A quick check on the GOV.UK website, advice for travellers, would have informed the family better. It's almost like we think the whole world is just our playground and we carry on as if we are in the UK. Clearly many countries have much stricter laws and customs. If we aren't happy, don't visit, no matter how glossy the ads.

I'd also add that if I heard of a 16 year old girl having sex with her 15 year old boyfriend in the UK, I would not expect the girl to face criminal charges/prison sentence.
They were two months apart in age and both consenting, prison is not the answer for a crime like this.

They could just have fined him. That would also have been deeply misogynistic but at least he could have gone home. Really feel for his poor parents.

Are you claiming that a child (Girl) as decribed under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and civil legislation in England and Wales. Do not belong and under the custody of their appointed and legal guardians in this case the girls parents. She was not 18.

You seem apt a calling people names in every post, you claim her mother is a rasist, thats quite a claim. Do you have any evidence of this?

Ah so you dont agree with United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and civil legislation in England and Wales. Good to know you dont make the rules.

Oh dear @JHound calling people trolls is against MN rules reported. Your last post was deleted for exactly the same and so thats strike 2.

But you appear to be using both the words "woman" and "girl" when it suits you, how odd perhaps that makes are a tad hypoctriical in your judgment and defense.

The girl was 16 which is legally defined as a child, as anyone who has not yet reached their 18th birthday. This is in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and civil legislation in England and Wales.

So an adult male of 18 had sex with a female child with out her parents consent in Dubai, which is against their law and customs.

The girl was not 16, she was 17 and a few months younger than Farkana.

Call her girl or woman my point stands - do you adhere to the misogynist trope that girls / women are the property of their families?

How is he disrespecting her family by the two of them engaging in a consensual relationship?

Why is she equally not “disrespecting her family by choosing her own partner and how are we disrespecting anybody by making a choice as to who we wish to date?

I also did not call you a troll I asked if you were because your stance appeared incoherent but then I remembered it could just be simple misogyny on your part.

She was not a woman let me repeat it again for you, she was legally classed as a child.

The girl was 17 which is legally defined as a child, as anyone who has not yet reached their 18th birthday. This is in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and civil legislation in England and Wales.

Oh dear @JHound calling people trolls is against MN rules reported. Your last post was deleted for exactly the same and so thats strike 2.

But you appear to be using both the words "woman" and "girl" when it suits you, how odd perhaps that makes are a tad hypoctriical in your judgment and defense.

The girl was 16 which is legally defined as a child, as anyone who has not yet reached their 18th birthday. This is in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and civil legislation in England and Wales.

So an adult male of 18 had sex with a female child with out her parents consent in Dubai, which is against their law and customs.

I think context is key.

I can acknowledge a country’s need to uphold their laws while also wishing for leniency in some cases. It is not black and white.

Also my position on Farkana is not because “it is legal in the UK”.

It’s that I am very uncomfortable with a racist mother, weaponising a foreign country’s law to try and find a way to keep her consenting daughter apart from the boy she wanted to date.

And also in general I think there are better uses of police time and prison spaces than prosecuting breach of age-of-consent laws between two persons a mere months apart in age.

It’s not that I think Britons should simply not have to pay attention to overseas laws. That is a wild oversimplification.

On a wider point, do you think anyone should be prosecuted if they commit a crime abroad? If the crime would not be a crime in the UK? Or not seen as seriously? Or would you say ' when in Rome'?

The girl was 17, not 16. She was a few weeks from being 18. Usually with something like this people would use their common sense to decide what is and what isn’t a suitable punishment. Not all crime is as black and white as you are making it seem.

Do you adhere to the misogynist trope that women are the property of their families?

Oh dear @JHound calling people trolls is against MN rules reported. Your last post was deleted for exactly the same and so thats strike 2.

But you appear to be using both the words "woman" and "girl" when it suits you, how odd perhaps that makes are a tad hypoctriical in your judgment and defense.

The girl was 16 which is legally defined as a child, as anyone who has not yet reached their 18th birthday. This is in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and civil legislation in England and Wales.

So an adult male of 18 had sex with a female child with out her parents consent in Dubai, which is against their law and customs.

Well from what I read, both Marcus and his family knew how strict here family were and hid their illegal actions from them.

They disrespected her family also, so what did they expect. Seems Marcus and his family showed zero respect for neither the country they were in or her family and culture so yes, he deserves it all.

That's great that the Irish government were able to secure her release. Although judging by some of the opinions about Marcus there will be some who think they shouldn't have intervened in another country's justice system and should have left her to rot.