Sexual Offences and Indecent Images

Being accused of a sexual offence is embarrassing, traumatic and requires a sensitive yet robust approach from your legal team. Early intervention and thorough preparation together with excellent advice can make a significant impact on the outcome.

A conviction or caution for these offences can impact your career, profession and reputation. We have vast experience in dealing with all types of offences, having been involved in high profile leading cases which enable us to deal with your case with ease.

We appreciate that this is a sensitive area of law with distinctive features. There is a social stigma and the impact it has on families can be considerable. Often there are different perceptions and racial/religious elements.

We treat each client with care, sensitively and with respect. We go through the evidence against you thoroughly and advise you on a defence strategy. We take detailed instructions and robustly defend your case and strive to obtain the best conclusion. We will work in a way which will endeavour to limit the about of damage to your reputation.

We have significant experience in all types of sexual offences including historical allegations of sexual abuse and pornography.

We will prepare your case with view to limiting the damage to you and your reputation. We will keep the evidence against you under review and check the disclosure given. We are able to advise and prepare representations to the CPS or police with view to seeking them to review the evidence again and drop the case or consider less serious charges/disposal.

We specialise in acting for those accused of:

• Historic sexual abuse
• Child abuse
• Rape and sexual/indecent assault
• Grooming
• Making/possession of 5indecent images of children
• Publication of private images/movies(so called “Revenge Porn” )
• Malicious communications
• Sexual Offences Prevention Orders (SOPOs), Sexual Risk Orders (SROs), Sexual Harm Prevention Orders (SHPOs) and other issues relating to the Sex Offenders Register

Our intervention at early stages our work has led clients to avoid prosecution.

If prosecuted, we have the expertise and skill to ensure that you and your case is fully prepared for the court process. We have resources at our disposal which places us in the best position to represent you whilst maintaining your privacy.

We have successfully defended clients at trial securing not guilty pleas through fully prepared cases exploring every single avenue. We have acted for clients who have been wrongly accused of sexual offences and believe that all persons are entitled to a fair trial no matter what the nature of the offence.

Grooming

This is an offence which involves an adult communicating for example online with a child under the age of 16 and going to meet them with the intentions of committing a sexual offence. No sexual offence needs to actually take place but by meeting them and intending to do something is will cross the threshold and can be regarded as grooming.

It is quite common that undercover police officers or paedophile hunters often pose as children to law and uncover grooming. Cases have involved people arranging to meet a young person having built up a rapport online only to be confronted by paedophile, hunters or police officers and arrested for these offences.

Usually people are bailed for significantly released under investigation for significant periods of time whilst forensic investigation and evidence is gathered, which can include downloading data from all devices including computers and phones.

Section 15 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, specifies that it is a criminal offence to meet a child following the process of grooming and if you are convicted in the Crown Court, the maximum prison sentence is 14 years.

This type of offence can be tried either in the magistrates court or the crown court.

The court will have to categorise the offence and have regard to raised harm and raised culpability.

Factors indicating raised harm

• Continued contact despite victims attempt to terminate contact
• Sexual images, exchange
• Victim, exposed extreme sexual content (for example, extreme pornography)
• Child is particularly vulnerable due to personal circumstances

Factors indicating raised culpability

• Offender acts together with others to commit the offense
• Communication indicates penetrative sexual activities intended
• Offender lied, about identity/persona
• Use of threats (including blackmail ), gifts, or bribed
• Abuse of trust
• Specifically targeting of a particularly vulnerable child
• Abduction/detention
• Commercial, exploitation, and all motivation.
• Offence racially religiously aggravated  motivated by a demonstrating hostility to the victim, based on his or her sexual orientation (or presumed sexual orientation) or transgender identity (or presume transgender identity)
• Offence motivated, by or demonstrating hostility to the victim based on his or her disability), or presume disability)

Making/Possession of Indecent Images of Children

This offence covers, possessing, distributing and or creating indecent images/media of children. Pseudo photographs are also covered by this offence.

This means that it is a criminal offence to have in your custody or control indecent images of a person who is below the age of 18 is the suspected to be.

The court will have regard to the number of images or videos, the category of images depicted, and the type of action taken to either make possess distribute or produce the images,

In these types of cases, it is likely that the police will arrest you or ask you to attend a police, interview voluntarily and then bail and subsequently release you under investigation. Whilst they examine your data on the on mobile devices or computers. This is a long process and can take many months. In our experience, in certain cases, the police may ask you to attend a second interview. once the forensic data examination is completed. Often this whole process can take over a year as devices are sent to specialist experts.

If indecent images (indecent according to the law) are discovered on your devices, is likely that you will be charged and required to attend The magistrates court for decision to be made, whether your case will be dealt with there or in the Crown Court

Possession of an indecent image is different to making an image. If you are prosecuted with making an image, this is likely to be with respect to the downloading of printing of an image that was already in existence, the offence of making indecent images of sentence in the same way as being in possession of indecent images.

Distributing indecent images are treated for more seriously than making of possessing them. Producing indecent images is considered even more serious.

If you are contacted by the police in relation to indecent images, the police will provide you with information regarding the Stop It Now campaign and the Lucy Faithfull Foundation It is a matter for you, whether you wish to accept their involvement. If you accept being involved in these offences, these organisations can offer help and advice and some people find this useful.

In the event that you are convicted to any offences to indecent image offences. It is likely that the court will impose a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which will regulate your future access to the internet.

Upon conviction, you will also be required to comply with notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (sex offenders register) and this, the length of this will depend on the sentence imposed by the court.

Rape and Sexual/Indecent Assault

Rape is sexual intercourse or another form of sexual penetration with another person without their consent. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 sets out the offences which include rape, assault by penetration, sexual assault and causing a person to engage in sexual activity.

A person is guilty of an offence if:

• they act intentionally
• the complainant does not consent to the act a
• and the person does not reasonably believe that the complainant consents

There are a number of other offences where there is no requirement to prove an absence of consent absence of consent the act in its self and the age of the complainant or other criteria need to be proved this can include:

• Rape of a child under 13
• Assault by penetration of a child on the 30
• Sexual assault of a child under 13
• Inciting of causing a person to engage in sexual activity with a child under 13
• Child, sexual offences, including children under 16
• Children under 18, having sexual relations with persons in a position of trust
• Children under 18 involved with family members over 18
• Persons with mental disorder, impeding choice
• Persons with mental disorder, who have induced threaten or deceived, deceived
• Persons, with a mental disorder have sexual relations with care workers.

What Is Consent?

Consent is defined as “if they agree by choice, and has freedom and capacity to make that choice”

In effect this means is whether a complaint had the capacity i.e. the understanding to make a choice about whether or not to take part in the act sexual activity at the time and whether they were in a position to make that choice freely, and was not constrained in any way.

In rape cases, the defences that are usually used are:

• that the intercourse/activity did not take place
• that it did take place, but not by the person accused of committing the rape
• that intercourse took place with the complainant ‘s consent
• that intercourse took place with the accused, believing that the complainant was consenting

Revenge Porn

Revenge porn was made a specific offence in the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 which states that if you are  accused of revenge porn and found guilty, you could be prosecuted and face a sentence of up to 2 years in prison.

Revenge porn is when someone shows a private sexual photo graph or film with you to another person without your consent and with the intention of causing you distress. It is an offence whether they show someone share it with others via social media email or any other communication. This includes re-posting and re-sharing any images.

The image/film has to be private, i.e. not something that is ordinarily seen in public and must be sexual of nature, for example, showing all or part of a persons, exposed genitals or pubic area if a reasonable person would consider the photograph a video to be sexual because of its nature.

What Is Not Considered Revenge Porn?

• If a sexual or private photograph, a video is shared in order to prevent detect to investigate a crime, for example, if they are shown to the police
• If it is shared for the purposes of journalism as the person who shared the photograph, reasonably believed it was in the public interest.
• It is also not considered an offence if for someone to share a photograph a video of you if they believe that had already been shared or published with your consent and that you had been paid.