Age of consent...

Young teacher, the subject

Of schoolgirl fantasy
She wants him so badly
Knows what she wants to be
Inside her there's longing
This girl's an open page
Book marking - she's so close now
This girl is half his age

I don’t usually comment on these things, but listening to someone say: ‘You just have to look at him to see he’s a pedo; he should be hung’, really raised my hackles… and by the way stupid that should be ‘hanged’.

Obviously it isn’t great when a young woman runs off with her teacher; it’s probably upsetting for her parents and means the end of his career too I expect. And no, I wouldn’t be happy if my daughter or son were in either of those positions. But it isn’t new, we don’t have the full background, it certainly doesn’t warrant hanging and I for one question if he deserves any punishment at all. Now, there will be some of you out there that brand me a pervert for this, but let’s start by looking at a few facts about the age of consent.

Anne Bolyne married Henry VIII at 12, and yes I know that was a long time ago.

Shakespeare’s Juliet was just 13 (yes I know, she’s a fictional character), but before 1875, in my grandmother’s lifetime, the AOC was just 12 in the UK.

Up until 2002 it was 14 in Russia.

In the USA it was 10 until 1900.

Today in Austria, Italy, Germany, and China it’s 14.

France and Denmark it’s 15.

Most of Eastern Europe it’s 14.

Spain and Japan it’s 13.

In Angola it’s 12 and in Tunisia it’s 20, almost on the shelf then by Japanese standards.

Outraged? Bear with me.

Seems to me that the age of consent is just a number grabbed from the air and I’m sure that we all know some very mature teenagers and some incredibly immature thirty year olds (like the female who made the ‘hang the pedo’ comment). Incidentally up until the Victorian times gay sex was punishable by death; I expect that she'd have thought that a good idea too.

I don’t know where the line should be drawn on consent. I’m very intolerant of paedophilia and think that paedophile’s should severely punished, it’s the worst of crimes, but drawing that line is so hard to gauge. In Portugal they make a judgement call; although the age of consent is 14, the legality of sexual acts with a minor between 14 and 16 is open to legal interpretation since the law states that it is illegal to perform a sexual act with an adolescent between 14 and 16 years old "by taking advantage of their inexperience". I’ll leave you to decide what inexperience means.

Of course the age of consent doesn’t apply as yet in this latest tale, we don’t know if the couple have had sex or not, and why should we? What business is it of ours? Besides, most (yes most, and 32% even admit to it) teenagers in the UK have sex before the UK legal age of consent of 16, perhaps a case for lowering it?

Maybe it’s the age difference that causes such outrage and those silly calls to ‘hang him’ from those very stupid people. Well, she’s almost 16 and he’s a young-minded 30. Is 14 years really such a difference? I know couples with 14 years between them, and so what? Since when did a forty-five year old man going out with a thirty-one year old woman cause any fuss at all? It’s not always the same for the woman/man ratio though; especially in the eyes of other women, something I’ve never been able to understand.

Apart from being very silly, maybe falling in love, betraying trust, running away – as lovers often do – has anyone really done anything wrong? Well, he is (was) a teacher. So would it have been okay if he was a builder? Well, he did abduct her. What bundled her up, gagged her, and drove her to a lock-up somewhere? I thought they went to Paris on a bit of a jaunt. Did he beat her up then? Was he disrespectful to her? Was him coming back, pretty much of his own free will, just some cynical ruse?

And what about the reasons behind it all – Were they happy at home? Was her relationship with her stepfather a good one? Was he happy with his wife?

Listen, I don’t think, although I can’t be sure, that either one has done anything really wrong. She’s not 16 but neither is she twelve and I don’t think this will turn out to be a paedophile grooming story. As for the rest, well only time will tell. The only thing that I am sure of is that he shouldn’t be hanged regardless of what he's done and particularly if his only crime is falling for the wrong right girl.

Hang me if you like.