Lawyer says sex should be legal for 14-year-olds

The legal age for sex should be lowered from 16 to 14 because teenagers are now better informed, says an Auckland lawyer.

Colin Amery, who is representing a man charged after allegedly having under-age sex with a 14-year-old girl, made the call for change after it was revealed that a 21-year-old female swimming coach in Wellington could not be charged for having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old boy.

The boy's mother is furious that the swim coach, who works for the Wellington City Council, cannot be prosecuted.

Mr Amery said a change in the legal age was needed because children were now able to make decisions earlier about when they had sex, and society's attitudes had relaxed since the laws were last changed in 1961.



He said the inequality in the law, which meant his client faced charges while the Wellington woman could not be prosecuted, needed to be eliminated. The real issue was whether 16 was an appropriate age for consent.

Children under 13 needed to be protected, said Mr Amery, but children older than that should be allowed to make their own decisions and were able to get information about sex from the media, especially television.

"The sexual climate of today is very different and children of 14 have a lot of sexual knowledge these days compared with 1961.

"At 14, young people have a degree of physical maturity but not necessarily emotional and psychological maturity, and the law has hopelessly failed to keep up with that."

Children's Commissioner Roger McClay said children, no matter what gender, needed to be protected from having sex too early and he welcomed moves from the Government to make sex between an adult woman and a boy illegal.

Mr McClay said it was ridiculous the woman could not be charged.

"If it was a male he would be in court and I would be calling him a paedophile. All children have the right to be protected - sometimes from themselves."

The boy was still a child in the eyes of the law even if he was physically mature, and children could be abused no matter what sex they were, he said.

"It's totally irresponsible and that person should hang her head in shame ... because she has taken advantage of him."

Justice Minister Phil Goff said he would introduce amendments to the Crimes Act to close the loophole that allows women having sex with boys to escape prosecution. The amendments were due to go to the Cabinet in the next two months.

Once they were approved, they would be sent for drafting, and he expected to introduce a bill by the end of the year.

Mr Goff said the anomaly was based on an outmoded assumption that women were incapable of committing sex offences.

National police spokesman Tony Ryall said Mr Goff first promised to close the loophole in January 2000, and the planned changes were formulated years ago.

- NZPA