Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Act 2007

Soliciting or importuning for purposes of commission of sexual offence.

2.— The Act of 1993 is amended by the substitution of the following section for section 6 (inserted by section 250 of the Children Act 2001 ):

“6.— (1) A person who solicits or importunes a child (whether or not for the purposes of prostitution) for the purposes of the commission of an act that would constitute an offence—

(a) under section 2 or 3 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006 , or

(b) referred to in section 2 of the Act of 1990,

shall be guilty of an offence.

(2) A person who solicits or importunes a person who is mentally impaired (whether or not for the purposes of prostitution) for the purposes of the commission of an act that would constitute an offence—

(a) under section 5 of this Act, or

(b) referred to in section 2 of the Act of 1990,

shall be guilty of an offence.

(3) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable—

(a) on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €5,000, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or to both, or

(b) on conviction on indictment to a fine, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years, or to both.

(4) In this section—

‘Act of 1990’ means the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act 1990 ;

‘ child ’ means a person under the age of 17 years;

‘ mentally impaired ’ has the same meaning as it has in section 5 of this Act.”.