Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 October 2020
106. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Defence the number of personnel who have been court-martialed for sexual offences in the past ten years; the number who have been convicted; the number placed on the sex offenders register; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29122/20]
View answerI have been informed by the Military Authorities that, in the past 10 years, two members of the Defence Forces were court-martialed for sexual offences. In both cases, the charges were proven. Both individuals were discharged from the Defence Forces.
Section 3 (2) of the Sex Offenders Act, 2001 provides that an offence referred to in paragraph 2 of the schedule to the Act (sexual assault or indecent assault) shall not be a sexual offence for the purposes of the Act if the victim of, or, as the case may be, the other party to the offence was aged 17 years or more at the date of the offence's commission, and the person guilty of the offence has not, in respect of the offence, been sentenced to any punishment involving deprivation of liberty for a limited or unlimited period of time or been made subject to any measure involving such deprivation of liberty.
I have been informed that as a consequence of the provisions outlined at para 4 above and pursuant to section 7(1), neither individual was subject to the requirements of the Act and therefore were not placed on the sexual offenders register.
