France refuses to create legal age for sexual consent

FRANCE’S parliament has passed a Bill to tighten laws on child rape but also angered rights groups by not setting a minimum legal age for sexual consent.

Yesterday’s Bill creates the new offence of “sexual violation of a minor by penetration”, which is punishable by 10 years in prison.

But, after a heated debate overnight, MPS decided not to create France’s first law on the age below which a minor cannot agree to a sexual relationship with an adult, proposed to be set at 15.

The new offence instead states that relations between an adult and a minor (of 15 or younger) can be classified as rape if there is “abuse of the victim’s vulnerability” and if she or he “lacks the necessary discernment to consent”.

The debate comes after outrage over recent court cases in which prosecutors refused to try two men for rape of 11-year-old girls because there was no proof of coercion.

Opposition MPS have criticised the new law as “ambiguous” and one that “sends the wrong message to society”.

The Bill must now pass the Senate.