While, of course, everything should be done for the kiddies, this is a bit much.
The new rules, part of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, will come into force on Monday.
In some countries, possessing indecent images of children is not illegal, or the age of consent is lower than 16.
The Home Office said British police would work with their counterparts abroad to bring offenders to account.
Current laws provide powers to prosecute for sex offences abroad only when they are illegal in that country.
The age of consent here in Portugal is 14. So someone could be prosecuted in the UK for something which is legal here? (Just to set minds at rest, no, this law isn\’t the reason I\’m here.)
Aren\’t we rather extending the law a little beyond the boundaries of the UK\’s territory here? Rather like people complain (rightly to my mind) about the way that the US does the same?
And would we like it if other countries started to do the same? There are countries where adulterers are subject to the death penalty: much as I dislike David Mellor I\’m really not certain that I\’d want the Saudi\’s to be able to behead him if he went avisiting.
Doesn\’t it also rather breach one of the basics of the legal code? That you can only be tried for things that were in fact a crime at the time and place they were committed?
Or does the fact that it\’s for the kiddies trump all such considerations?
It is that salami slicer in action again. How long before our terror and libel laws can be applied abroad?
“…much as I dislike David Mellor I’m really not certain that I’d want the Saudi’s to be able to behead him if he went avisiting.”
*sigh* Another of those theoretical cases that really tests one’s committment to a principle… 🙂
This is a fencepost.
What next? Women visiting Saudi Arabia arrested because they drove to Heathrow?
“The Home Office said British police would work with their counterparts abroad to bring offenders to account. ”
Perhaps this is naive, but why would “their counterparts abroad” be interested in helping British police investigate crimes that, by their laws, haven’t been committed?
So presumably soon it will be illegal to go to Amsterdam and have a spliff?
Absolutely Ridiculous, possibly even more so than pretty much every other change to the law this lot of incompetent fucks have made.
Roger’s post is a great example of why this is suck a STUPID FUCKING IDEA.
FUCK I HATE GORDON FUCKING BROWN. Won’t somebody rid us of this steaming useless cunt?
What next? British bankers jailed in the USA for something they did in England.
Oh sorry they’ve done that already.
Serf:
The British bankers defrauded an American company. In the Internet age you don’t need to be physically present to commit fraud.
Of course, if the UK hadn’t discarded all of its national sovereignty the bankers wouldn’t have been extradited. You can expect a lot more of this kind of thing as the EU arrest warrant and the International Criminal Court replace local law enforcement
ZT: no, they didn’t, they defrauded Edinburgh-based RBS.