Police Scotland urge law change in bid to tackle online sexual grooming

Senior police officers have called on ministers to rewrite legislation that is hampering their ability to protect children targeted by adults for online sexual grooming.

Current legislation contains a “gap” that means officers conducting covert operations posing as children online are unable to prosecute abusers who engage in sexual conversation or indecent behaviour unless there is an intention to meet, according to Police Scotland.

The single force is now urging the Scottish Government to revise the legislation in order to bolster their powers in line with steps that have taken south of the border.

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It comes as Justice Secretary Michael Matheson today appears before Holyrood’s Justice Committee for its final evidence session on the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm Bill.

The number of offenders convicted for internet-related offences throughout Scotland more than doubled in two years, from 252 offenders in 2012-13 to 527 last year, according to a report published last month.

Police want ministers to use the legislation currently being scrutinised by MSPs as a means to amend the Sexual Offences Scotland Act 2009, which only allows an offence to be committed against a child where it is proved the victim was a child under the age of 16.

In instances where an officer is posing as a child and is contacted by a perpetrator, police are forced to rely on a separate piece of legislation “where this allows for the victim to be ‘a child or a constable’ but only where there is a clear intention by the perpetrator to meet the ‘child’”.

Assistant chief constable Malcolm Graham, who provided a written submission to MSPs as part of its scrutiny of the latest bill, added: “The inclusion of ‘a child or a constable’ [in the Sexual Offences Scotland Act 2009] would provide a significant additional mechanism for police to intervene as early as possible against those seeking to exploit children online.

“It is of note that legislation in England and Wales allows for the prosecution of individuals who have interacted in sexualised chat/grooming with a constable purporting to be a child even without arranging a ‘meet’.”

An in-depth review of the multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) used to monitor sex offenders recently found that practitioners involved in its delivery “lacked confidence” when assessing the potential risk an internet offender poses of going on to commit a contact offence, for instance meeting the young person they have sought to groom online.

The review, carried out by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary along with the Care Inspectorate, called for additional guidance to be drawn up to allow staff to “better assess the risk posed by internet offenders”.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “In respect of the Police Scotland views on covert operations, we are happy to consider stakeholder views about how the legislation may be able to be improved.”