Sexual Offences

Sexual Offence Lawyers Townsville

Experienced in Criminal Defences For Sexual Offences

Sexual offence is a broad term and describes committing unlawful actions of a sexual nature. Sexual assault, indecent treatment of children, having a sexual relationship with a child, or rape, are sexual offences.

Effectively, a sexual assault involves an assault of a sexual nature whilst rape is an allegation of penetration without consent. Broader offences can include the possession of restricted material and simply having or distributing certain types of images can be considered a serious sexual offence.

Highly topical in both social and mainstream media, rape and sexual offences feature are prominent among political interest groups who are applying significant public pressure for offences of this type to be pursued and prosecuted.

As such allegations of rapes and sexual offences are likely to be of high profile and may attract significant attention from the media and the public alike.

They are among the most serious offences against the person and will invariably need to be dealt

with by the District Court. Convictions of offences of this nature will likely result in periods of imprisonment.

Important Factors For Sexual Offences

Rape and sexual assaults can occur in domestic or general settings and can involve victims who are both adults or minors. Either setting is treated extremely seriously. Because of their high public profile, there is a high public interest in the prosecution proceeding with allegations of this type.

There is no statute of limitations on these types of offences which means that persons are frequently prosecuted based on allegations with respect to incidents that happened many years or even decades ago.

For Legal Advice On Sexual Offences Speak To ATL

The issue of consent or the lack thereof is a highly technical one and it is vital that if you become aware that you are a suspect for any of these offences, you engage a legal practitioner to assist you before you talk to police about the offence so that you can obtain advice as to your options as soon as possible.

Contact Anderson Telford Lawyers online or call us on 07 4721 5870.

Sexual Assaults

Sexual Assaults
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Rape

Rape
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Child Pornography

Child Pornography
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What to Do If You Are Charged with a Sexual Offence?

What to Do If You Are Charged with a Sexual Offence?
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Sexual Assaults

The offence of sexual assault occurs where a person unlawfully and indecently assaults another, or procures another person without their consent to commit an act of gross indecency or witness an act of gross indecency.

The maximum penalty is 10 years' imprisonment or 14 years if there is a circumstance of aggravation.

The offence of sexual assault can include conduct involving penetration, as well as other sexual touching or indecent conduct not involving penetration.

Common examples of low-level sexual assaults include touching someone’s breasts, buttocks or genitals without their consent.

Penalties include fines, probation, intensive correction orders and jail time.

Rape

For conduct to be considered rape, the offender and the victim need to participate in a non-consensual act which involves penetration with a sexual connotation.

Child Pornography

The Criminal Code sets out child pornography offences including the making of child exploitation material and distributing and possessing such material.

Child exploitation material is defined to mean material that, is in a way likely to cause offence to a reasonable adult, describes or depicts a person or a representation of a person, who is (or apparently is) a child under 16 years in a sexual context (e.g. engaging in a sexual activity) or in an offensive or demeaning context or being subjected to abuse, cruelty or torture.