Dublin
In its rush to pass a statutory rape law this week, the Irish legislature accidentally criminalized sex between consenting 16-year-olds. It all started last week, when the Irish Supreme Court struck down the country’s statutory rape law, which automatically classified sex between an adult and a child younger than 15 as rape. The court freed a 41-year-old who was convicted of rape after admitting that he got a 12-year-old girl drunk and had sex with her. It ruled that the rape law was unconstitutional because it didn’t allow the man to plead ignorance of the girl’s age. Appalled at the release, the Irish legislature passed a new law that allows such a defense, and the man was re-arrested. But the new law, which raised the age of consent to 17, was worded in such a manner that high school sweethearts can now be arrested for getting too intimate.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Crisis in Cuba: a ‘golden opportunity’ for Washington?Talking Point The Trump administration is applying the pressure, and with Latin America swinging to the right, Havana is becoming more ‘politically isolated’
-
5 thoroughly redacted cartoons about Pam Bondi protecting predatorsCartoons Artists take on the real victim, types of protection, and more
-
Palestine Action and the trouble with defining terrorismIn the Spotlight The issues with proscribing the group ‘became apparent as soon as the police began putting it into practice’
