Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Act 2024

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Year: 2024
• Citation: IR No. 28/2024

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Act 2024

2024 28

An Act to amend the procedures applicable in proceedings for certain sexual offences including in relation to the adducing of evidence, the asking of questions, the exclusion of the public, the announcement of a verdict or decision and sentence and the anonymity of complainants and accused persons; for those and other purposes to amend the Criminal Law (Rape) Act 1981 and certain other enactments; to repeal certain provisions of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006 and the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017; to provide for the retrospective application of certain of these repeals in certain circumstances; to provide for a mechanism for the identification of victims and presumed victims of human trafficking and the combatting of the trafficking of persons, to provide for the support of provision of assistance to such persons and, for those purposes, to provide for the establishment of a body to be known as the operational committee and to provide for its functions; to provide for the protection from deportation of certain persons; to amend the Defence Act 1954; to amend the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act 2008; to give effect to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, done at New York on 25 May 2000, and for that purpose to amend the Sexual Offences (Jurisdiction) Act 1996 and the Criminal Justice (Mutual Assistance) Act 2008; and to provide for related matters.

[17 July 2024]

" xml:lang="en" LANG="en" datatype="xsd:string" /> Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Act 2024 function OptanonWrapper() { } window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [

1 Short title and commencement

(1) This Act may be cited as the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Act 2024.

(2) This Act shall come into operation on such day or days as the Minister may appoint by order or orders either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision and different days may be so appointed for different purposes or different provisions.

2 Definition

2. In this Act, “Minister” means the Minister for Justice.

3 Expenses

3. The expenses incurred by the Minister in the administration of this Act shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, be paid out of monies provided by the Oireachtas.

4 Regulations and orders

4. Every regulation and order, other than an order under section 1(2), made under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation or order is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which that House sits after the regulation or order is laid before it, the regulation or order shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

5 Definition (Part 2)

5. In this Part—

“Act of 1981” means the Criminal Law (Rape) Act 1981;

“Act of 2006” means the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006;

“Act of 2017” means the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017.

6 Amendment of section 1 of Act of 1981

(1) of the Act of 1981 is amended—

(a)

by the insertion of the following definitions:

“ ‘Act of 2001’ means the Children Act 2001;

‘Act of 2017’ means the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017;

‘applicable offence’ means—

(a) a sexual assault offence, or

(b) an offence under section 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 21 or 22 of the Act of 2017;”,

and

(b)

in the definition of “a rape offence” by the substitution of “section 2(2)” for “sections 2(2) and 8”.

7 Amendment of section 4A of Act of 1981

7. Section 4A of the Act of 1981 is amended—

(a) in subsection (5), by the substitution of “subsection (1)” for “this section” in both places where it occurs,

(b) by the insertion of the following subsections after subsection (5):

“(5A) Where a judge has given leave in accordance with section 3 or 4 for any evidence to be adduced or any question to be asked, the complainant shall be entitled to be heard in relation to the evidence or the question and, for this purpose, to be legally represented during the adducing of that evidence or the asking of that question.

(5B) The prosecution shall, as soon as practicable after a judge has given leave in accordance with section 3 or 4 for any evidence to be adduced or any question to be asked, notify the complainant of his or her entitlement to be heard in relation to the evidence or the question and to be legally represented, for that purpose, during the adducing of that evidence or the asking of that question.

(5C) The judge shall not permit the said evidence to be adduced or the said question to be asked without first being satisfied that subsection (5B) has been complied with.

(5D) If the period between the complainant’s being notified, under subsection (5B), of his or her entitlements under subsection (5A) and the adducing of the said evidence or the asking of the said question is not, in the judge’s opinion, such as to have afforded the complainant a reasonable opportunity to arrange legal representation of the kind referred to in subsection (5A), the judge shall postpone the adducing of the evidence or the asking of the question (and, for this purpose, may adjourn the trial or proceeding concerned) for a period that the judge considers will afford the complainant such an opportunity.”,

and

(c) by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (6):

“(6) This section applies to—

(a) a sexual assault offence,

(b) an offence under section 6 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993, and

(c) an offence under the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006.”.

8 Amendment of section 5 of Act of 1981

8. Section 5 of the Act of 1981 is amended by the substitution of “Act of 2001” for “Children Act 2001”.

9 Amendment of section 6 of Act of 1981

9. Section 6 of the Act of 1981 is amended—

(a) in subsection (1), by the substitution of “Subject to subsections (2), (3) and (3A), in any proceedings for an applicable offence,” for “Subject to subsections (2), (3) and (4), in any proceedings for a rape offence or the offence of aggravated sexual assault or attempted aggravated sexual assault or of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the offence of aggravated sexual assault or attempted aggravated sexual assault or of incitement to the offence of aggravated sexual assault or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing offences,”,

(b) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (3):

“(3A) This section shall not apply to the hearing of proceedings to which section 94 of the Act of 2001 applies.”,

and

(c) by the deletion of subsection (4).

10 Amendment of section 7 of Act of 1981

10. Section 7 of the Act of 1981 is amended—

(a) by the substitution of “an applicable offence” for “a sexual assault offence” in each place it occurs,

(b) in subsection (1), by the substitution of “published or broadcast” for “published in a written publication available to the public or be broadcast”,

(c) in subsection (5), by the substitution of “applicable offence” for “sexual assault offence”, and

(d) by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (7):

“(7) In this section—

‘broadcast’ has the same meaning as it has in section 2 of the Broadcasting Act 2009;

‘publish’ means publish, other than by way of broadcast or in an indictment or other document prepared for use in particular legal proceedings, to the public or a portion of the public.”.

11 Amendment of section 8 of Act of 1981

11. Section 8 of the Act of 1981 is amended—

(a) by the substitution of “an applicable offence” for “a rape offence” in each place where it occurs, and

(b) in subsection (1), by the substitution of “published or broadcast” for “published in a written publication available to the public or be broadcast”.

12 Amendment of section 9 of Act of 1981

12. Section 9 of the Act of 1981 is amended—

(a) by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (1):

“(1) This Act applies, with the necessary modifications, to the trial by court-martial of an applicable offence.”,

(b) in subsection (2)—

(i) by the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (a):

“(a) for the references to a judge in section 3, 7 or 8 there shall be substituted references to a military judge, and”,

(ii) by the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (aa):

“(aa) in section 8(8) for the reference to the Director of Public Prosecutions there shall be substituted a reference to the Director.”,

and

(iii) by the deletion of paragraph (b),

and

(c) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (2):

“(3) In this section, ‘court-martial’, ‘Director’ (other than in the reference to the Director of Public Prosecutions) and ‘military judge’ have the same meanings as they have in the Defence Act 1954.”.

13 Definitions (Chapter 3 of Part 2)

In this Chapter—

“affidavit”, in the case of a person for the time being allowed by law to declare instead of swearing, includes declaration;

“oath”, in the case of a person for the time being allowed by law to affirm or declare instead of swearing, includes affirmation or declaration;

“specified offence” means an offence specified in the Schedule to the Sex Offenders Act 2001.

14 Vouching of character of convicted...