TheArchSorcererofContwaraburg
Oh, don't flatter yourself, Sly. People are perfectly capable of reading all your posts and find them a load of hot air and whatabouts.
I'm not flattering myself. I am entitled to my opinion thank you. And my opinion is that we shouldn't all collectively judge the Radfords negatively when we don't know them. The law is clear but unfortunately, lots of teens have underage sex and sex with those who are underage. Are they all sex abusers? You could argue yes they are all. But do none of them grow and grow up to be responsible parents? You could possibly argue some of them do? I don't know for sure. What I am saying is that it is an uncomfortable subject and an uncomfortable thing to discuss...but that doesn't mean we shouldn't discuss it.
And no I am not comfortable with it at all Laaf80 . I am not trying to defend it. I simply came on here because I hate these threads who sneer at the Radfords who come across to me as a decent family. I don't know them from adam though and nor do many of the people posting here.
Even law lords have debates on this subject. Lady Hale said when judging the case of a 15 yr old boy in 2008 who had had sex with a 13 year old girl (different to the Radfords case I know)
"the law has disabled children under 13 from giving their consent. So there was no consent. In view of all the dangers resulting from under-age sexual activity, it cannot be wrong for the law to apply that label even if it cannot be proved that the child was in fact unwilling."
All of the judges agreed there were good policy reasons for a clear law which conveys the message, not only to adults but also to children, that sexual activity with a child under 16 is an offence. This is to protect children from themselves as well as from each other and from adults who may prey upon them. They acknowledged, however, that there will be large variations in the blameworthiness of behaviour which is caught by one of the child sex offences in the 2003 act, and that the age of the perpetrator is a highly relevant factor in this. Baroness Hale observed:
"Both prosecutors and sentencers will have to make careful judgments about who should be prosecuted and what punishment, if any, is appropriate. In many cases, there will be no reason to take any official action at all. In others, protective action by the children's services, whether in respect of the perpetrator or the victim or both, may be more appropriate."