Offence Commited In China

[P00ch]

A14 year old from the UK visits china with a group of adults and other children also from the UK. Upon return she reports that whilst in China she was sexually assaulted by one of the adults.

Would the case be dealt with by China or UK?

Both the offender and the victim are resident in UK and hold British nationality.

[Gavmacp]

UK

[Buenchico]

In general UK laws don't apply outside of the UK and the UK authorities have no powers to prosecute someone for an offence which occurred outside of the UK. However they can do so when there is specific legislation permitting such prosecutions. The relevant legislation here is Section 72 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/4/section/72

Chris

[DangerUXD]

Either, as chris points out certain offences can be tried in UK even when committed abroad.

[Peter Pedant]

and causes a h*ll of a lot of problems

basically it is a criminal case but the witnesses may be in China and not that keen on coming for their free holiday in UK - and so is less personal evidence - by letter or video, hearsay evidence and non admissible
or do you allow the possibility of conviction of a serious offence on iffy evidence ?

and if you think THAT is a law-skool question which will never happen

then google Bonhoeffer (yes the nephew of that one)

or go here BAILLII org

and case search for Bonhoeffer and you get something like this:

Bonhoeffer, R (on the application of) v General Medical Council [2011] EWHC 1585 (Admin) (21 June 2011) (View without highlighting) [100%]
([2011] ACD 104, [2011] EWHC 1585 (Admin), [2011] Med LR 519, [2012] IRLR 37; From England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) Decisions; 206 KB)

General Medical Council v Bonhoeffer [2012] EWHC 2078 (Admin) (28 June 2012) (View without highlighting) [33%]
([2012] EWHC 2078 (Admin); From England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) Decisions; 7 KB


You will also find it discussed in Europe Tahrir and Albert I think

and at the end of it, you get a good idea why we dont allow most times indictments for crimes committed abroad -and the exceptions when we do, it is a complete dogs dinner


Buenchico gives one ref
the one they rely on in these cases is the Sexual Offences Act 2004 and allows prosecution for some foreign offences/acts after 2004.

[Buenchico]

>>>the one they rely on in these cases is the Sexual Offences Act 2004

To be pedantic, it's Section 72 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, as amended by Section 72 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, which is exactly what I linked to.

[Peter Pedant]

Thanks I wondered why they had to have another go in 2008 and speculated that it might be due to some anomaly

because the cut off date is 2004 (no prosecution of offences before) and if this was enacted/amended in 2008 - does it mean another bug bear of retroactive legislation was involved ?

really what DO they DO in parliament these days - spend their days filling out expenses and nodding through iffy legislation ? [Yours disgusted etc ]