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Judge critical of CPS over case involving teenagers who had consensual sex (13 April 2015)

Date: 13/04/2015
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Judge critical of CPS over case involving teenagers who had consensual sex

A judge has apologised to a 17-year-old boy, after he was convicted of having underage sex with a 15-year-old girl and had to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register.

The Daily Mail reports that the teenagers were both drunk when they had sex in a car park, after attending a peace festival in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire in June 2014.

The boy – now aged 18 – was initially charged with rape but later entered a guilty plea to sexual activity with a girl who was underage.

The court heard that the sex was consensual, but a case against the boy was brought by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Judge Sylvia de Bertodano has questioned why the case was brought.

“I don't know what the world has come to when I am asked to deal with two teenagers who got drunk and had sex,” she told the court.

The two teenagers had gone to a supermarket car park in the early hours of the morning after the festival. The rest of the group had gone to a nearby burger restaurant and in their absence the teenagers had sex.

The boy has been given a one-month conditional discharge and has been ordered to register as a sex offender for two weeks.

”I have to deal with this on the basis that a 17-year-old had sex with a girl who was almost 16, and they had both had too much to drink. What are we doing here?

“But still the prosecution wanted to press on.

“I don't know what the world has come to when I am asked to deal, in a serious criminal court, with two teenagers who got drunk and had sex.

“If it had been rape, that would have been a different matter. I feel extremely sorry for you having to end up in this position, “ Judge de Bertodano told him in court.

”Clearly this started as a very serious case – but what it comes to is simply a teenage incident, which should never have come near the courts at all.

“These sort of cases have no place in this kind of court.

“I want you to go away with that ringing in your ears and for it not to cast a shadow over the rest of your teenage years,” she added.

“You have been through a great deal as a result of this. I hope you can now put it behind you. I don't think this matter should be here at all.”

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