Page 6075 - Week 18 - Thursday, 12 December 1991
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(4) In proceedings for an offence under subsection (2), evidence of a sexual act is not inadmissible by reason only that it does not disclose the date or the exact circumstances in which the act occurred.
(5) Subject to subsection (7), a person who is convicted of an offence under subsection (2) is liable to imprisonment for 7 years.
(6) If a person convicted under subsection (2) is found, during the course of the relationship, to have committed another offence under this Part in relation to the young person (whether or not the person has been convicted of that offence), the offence under subsection (2) is punishable by imprisonment -
(a) if the other offence is punishable by imprisonment for less than 14 years - for 14 years;
(b) if the other offence is punishable by imprisonment for a period of 14 years or more - for life.
(7) Subject to subsection (9), a person may be charged in 1 indictment with an offence under subsection (2) and with another offence under this Part alleged to have been committed by the person during the course of the alleged relationship and may be convicted of and punished for any or all of the offences so charged.
(8) Notwithstanding subsection 443(3), where a person convicted of an offence under subsection (2) is sentenced to a term of imprisonment for that offence and a term of imprisonment for another offence under this Part committed during the course of the relationship, the court shall not direct that those sentences be cumulative.
(9) A prosecution for an offence under subsection (2) shall not be commenced except by, or with the consent of, the Director of Public Prosecutions.'.".
Mr Speaker, the amendment has the support of the National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, and in that regard I believe that due credit should go to their national president, Mark O'Neill, of our own court system.
Mr Speaker, the amendment before the house has been substantially adjusted by the Law Office and the Attorney. It raises the age for the potential offence from 12 years, as was proposed, and 14 years, as I suggested, to 16 years. In view of the fact that the Attorney has moved, in effect, that the prosecutions be commenced only with the consent of the
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