The NSPCC has criticised a Crown Prosecution Service barrister who was prosecuting a 41-year-old man for having sex with a 13-year-old girl and described the girl as “predatory”. The judge in the case also told the defendant, who admitted the offence, that the girl was “predatory, and egging you on” and handed down an eight month suspended prison sentence for breaking the law.

The NSPCC has opined that the language used by the barrister and judge was “completely inappropriate”, and that “a 13-year-old child cannot be complicit in her own abuse”. The Attorney-General is reviewing the case to ascertain whether the sentence, under the circumstances, was too lenient and should be increased.

The NSPCC, however, have revealed that some victims of child sexual abuse become sexually active long before the legal age of consent and take part in “risk-taking behaviour” (predation?) during adolescence, making themselves dangerously vulnerable to predatory adults prepared to break the law to take advantage of the physical maturity and mental immaturity.