Anders Hanson

Just by raising questions about the way that paedophiles are treated was going to cause problems for Terry Grange - Chief Constable of Dyfed-Powys Police. Anyone in that position who is seen to be advocating that ‘paedophiles’ should be treated more leniently is asking for trouble.

But as much as it may be unpopular to say it, he has a point in some of what he says. Not because paedophiles should be treated more lightly but because the whole definition of what one is is in my view wrong.

Put it this way. Is it right for a 16 year old who has sex with a 15 year old to be classed as a paedophile and sex offender for the rest of their life? In these circumstances this could be two people who potentially are boyfriend and girlfriend, and whilst I wouldn’t advocate having sex when you are very young, many people do.

This is a completely different sort of crime from a case where someone deliberately has sex with someone much younger than them simply because of a sexual attraction towards children. But by putting them all in to the same bracket, it not only ruins the life of someone who may have made a mistake when they were young but I think it almost lessens the impact of the label: paedophile.

Someone who has sex with someone who is only marginally underage deserves to be punished in some way, but they do not deserve to be classed as a paedophile and added to the sex offenders register. Someone who chooses to have sex with someone specifically because they get turned on by the idea that they are a child deserves to be put in prison for a long time and should be on the sex offenders register. Indeed I would argue that if someone is still deemed to be such a danger that they have to be kept on a sex offenders register, then they shouldn’t be let out of prison in the first place.

Earlier this year, when the Government was in trouble for not knowing the whereabouts of a number of sex offenders, it became clear then that some of these supposedly dangerous people fell in to the former category. One was a school teacher who had a relationship with a pupil - OK, not something I would advocate as a positive - but it then emerged that the teacher was not that much older than the pupil and the couple then went on to be married for many years. It is this sort of case where the people involved should be prosecuted, but do not deserve to be stigmatised for life.

What I am arguing is for the separation of two crimes. One of which is still a crime but deserves a less severe punishment, and another one which should quite rightly be treated as a very serious criminal act.

BBC NEWS: Chief defends underage sex remark