The good news from a letter received by my MP, John Redwood, from The Rt Hon David Gauke MP, Lord Chancellor & Secretary of State for Justice was that the use of Police Letters in harassment cases, much loved by groomers trying to silence their victims, is under review.
The bad news is that the messy laws that leave the victims of adults grooming with no protection are not under review, and there is no CURRENT intent to review them.
(This is at odds with advice given elsewhere, but this is ‘from the horse’s mouth’, so I give this great credence.)
In a nutshell: there are no intentions whatsoever to change the law from the Sexual Offences Act 2003, because the government considers that it is working well.
In this instance, the government is sadly misinformed. Until a person is 15 years 364 days old, they are entitled to protection from grooming. On their 16th birthday, this changes absolutely — there is no protection from grooming for adults in the UK.
My case, Terri’s case, Anna’s case, all point to the fact that we have no legal recourse for the significant deception and manipulation that lured us into relationships with adult groomers.
It is therefore doubly important that we really get behind Anna Rowe’s petition to have ‘catfishing’ recognised as a crime, as a start point for seeing government take this seriously. I urge you to sign it: Creating fake online profiles for sex is fraud. Make Catfishing a crime!
CAAGe: The Campaign Against Adult Grooming 
I don’t think he knows what grooming even is. The ‘whole process’ online has been agreed to be reviewed already ( and we are working on a report to back the petition) and it was my petition that the opened the door for debate. Grooming is very much part of the process for abuse across the board for financial and sexual abuse. It needs it’s own little slot in legislation so it covers the offences of financial and sexual intent.
LikeLike
My own thinking now is that any kind of misrepresentation – name, marital status, financial – etc, (for any reason other than national security, and only then closely monitored and regulated) needs to be stamped on and considered rape by deception. That legislation seems to have been so stamped on over the years it’s now less useful than a chocolate teapot – the police don’t seem to know what to do with it. TVP, when I reported, hadn’t even heard of it.
He should know – it WAS his department.
I include financial which has largely been excluded in the past, but it’s still deception. Any woman who sleeps with a man for money is guilty of prostitution, so it wouldn’t lead to a rash of people complaining, but would help stop people feeling the need to lie.
Well done on the petition – we must do something to see it more widely publicised. I’d already started this campaign before I found you. Glad the report’s being done. Let me know what help/support is needed. However much we try to describe the damage that these things do, I suspect an awful lot of people have ‘get over it’ attitudes.
LikeLike