It is sensible to amend the law to ensure that the offence
of “causing or allowing” applies in cases where a child is injured, as well as
those in which a child dies. So we must welcome the new offence, under the
Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims (Amendment) Act 2012. From next week child
abusers in England and Wales could be found guilty of the new offence of deliberately causing or allowing serious
physical harm to a child or vulnerable adult and face up to 10 years in
prison.
I thought some of the coverage of these developments was a
bit sloppy. The whole point of the new law is that it is designed to deal with just
those situations where two or more carers, having the care of a child who has
suffered non-accidental injury, opt to stay silent or to make mutual
allegations. And a jury still has to be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt
that a defendant either caused the injury or was, or ought to have been, aware
of the risk to the child, failed to take reasonable steps to protect the child
and that in circumstances the defendant foresaw or ought to have foreseen the
injury.
One BBC report (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18638734
) proclaimed:
“From Monday anyone who deliberately causes or allows
serious physical harm to a child or vulnerable adult faces up to 10 years in
prison.”
That sounds as if hitherto it has not proved possible to
prosecute anyone who caused non-accidental injuries to a child, which is, of
course, manifestly false! A similar misleading impression is given in the video
clip (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18640386).
I hope and expect that the new law will be used sparingly,
with most child abusers being prosecuted for assault in the traditional way.
