Criminal Law (Rape) Act, 1981

Penalty for publication of unauthorised matter.

11.—(1) A person guilty of an offence under section 7 (6) (including an offence under that section as applied by section 8 (6)) shall be liable on conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding £10,000 or, at the discretion of the court, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

(2) (a) Where an offence to which subsection (1) relates and which has been committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate or any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of that offence and be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

(b) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, paragraph (a) shall apply in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his functions of management as if he were a director of the body corporate.

(3) Where a person is charged with an offence to which subsection (1) relates it shall be a defence to prove that at the time of the alleged offence he was not aware, and neither suspected nor had reason to suspect, that the publication or broadcast in question was of such matter as is mentioned in section 7 (1) or section 8 (1), as the case may be.