AG’s crackdown on child sex criminals removes potential for lighter sentences

Vile crims caught with child pornography or sex dolls that look like children will be shown no leniency after the Attorney-General closed a legal loophole.

Criminals caught with child pornography or sex dolls that look like children will no longer be treated with any more leniency than those convicted of other child sex offences.

Laws aimed at closing loopholes to crack down on offenders passed state parliament last week.

They reclassify possession of either child pornography or childlike sex dolls from indictable offences to serious indictable offences for the purposes of sentencing discounts.

Also, when considering a bail application for people accused of such offences, courts will also be required to take into account the harm caused to children in the wider community by fuelling the demand for child sex abuse.

The legislation also changes the name of the crime related to exploitation in commercial sexual services, which will now be called exploitation in “commercial sexual acts”.

Attorney-General Kyam Maher said the change better reflected the exploitative and non-consensual nature of those offences.

Attorney-General Kyam Maher said the change better reflected the exploitative and non-consensual nature of those offence. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

He said the laws appropriately conveyed the seriousness of the crimes.

“The way the laws were structured could have led to a perception that the government and broader society viewed the crimes of possessing child pornography or childlike sex dolls as somehow being a less serious form of offending than other child sex offences,” he said.

“Nothing could be further from the truth.

“The fact is that the possession of child pornography fosters an environment that condones the abuse of some of our most vulnerable and it is our responsibility to send a clear message that this vile practice is treated as the serious offence that it is, and that perpetrators and offenders will be punished accordingly.

“This is what the community would expect, and what these laws deliver.”

It comes as the state and federal governments undertake broader reviews on sexual consent and sexual abuse laws, including issues that have been raised by the Grace Tame Foundation’s Harmony Campaign.