Grooming children into crime to be punished with up to five years in prison

Helen McEntee

Justice Minister Helen McEntee and the minister of state for law reform, James Browne, today published the general scheme of the Criminal Justice (Exploitation of Children in the Commission of Offences) Bill.

The bill proposes the creation, for the first time, of specific criminal offences where an adult compels, coerces, induces or invites a child to engage in criminal activity.

Although current law provides that an adult who causes or uses a child to commit a crime can generally be found guilty as the principal offender, the government believes this does not recognise the harm done to a child by drawing them into a world of criminality, as highlighted by the Greentown Report produced by University of Limerick School of Law in 2016.

Those found guilty of the new offences would face imprisonment of 12 months on summary conviction and up to five years on indictment. The child concerned does not have to be successful in carrying out the offence for the law to apply.

The offence of grooming a child into criminal activity will also be prosecutable as a completely separate and additional offence to any crime committed by the adult using the child as their innocent agent, and the details of this will be “finalised throughout the legislative process”.

Ms McEntee said: “We must tackle crime at all levels and in all areas of our society – from stopping the gang bosses committing the most awful crimes to preventing them leading our young into a life of crime.

“Rooting crime out of our communities means we must show criminals that we are deadly serious about ensuring they cannot exploit our young for their own ends. We are equally serious about ensuring that crime does not pass down through generations.

“Breaking the link between criminal gangs and the vulnerable young people they try to recruit will be essential if we are to divert young people away from lives of crime. This legislation will further seek to protect children from being drawn into a life of criminality, with all the potential lifetime consequences that entails, and to further disrupt the activity of criminals within our communities.”

Mr Browne added: “This new bill directly addresses the commitments in the Programme for Government to legislate against the coercion and use of minors in the sale and supply of drugs and to criminalise adults who groom children to commit crimes.

“I look forward to the process of pre-legislative scrutiny making an important contribution to ensuring the legislation takes account of all the complexities involved in dealing with the issue of children being drawn into crime to the greatest degree possible.”