Earl Moxam, Senior Gleaner Writer

Shirley Richards, attorney-at-law and head of the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

The advocacy group, Lawyers' Christian Fellowship, is calling for legal sanctions against fondling, and what it characterises as inappropriate touching, acts which are short of incest, as defined, which might be committed by one family member against another in the home.

It is important, according to Shirley Richards, head of the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship, to include sanctions against acts such as 'fondling, kissing or other inappropriate forms of touching', where there is no direct attempt at incest, the only aim being to 'enjoy the body of the victim' in the other ways outlined.

The advocacy group wants these acts to be classified as 'indecent assault' and to be included in the Incest (Punishment) Act.

A bill entitled An Act to Amend the Incest (Punishment) Act is currently being considered by a joint select committee of Parliament.

Appearing yesterday before the committee, Mrs. Richards called for the appropriate amendments to be made providing for a maximum of seven years imprisonment for anyone committing this offence.

The Lawyers' Christian Fellowship also expressed opposition to the proposed definition of 'sexual intercourse' in another bill - entitled An Act to Amend the Offences Against the Person Act.

The draft bill defines "sexual intercourse" as certain sexual acts, including anal sex (buggery) and oral sex, along with the manipulation by inanimate objects.

Mrs. Richards pleaded with the committee to keep the definition of "sexual intercourse" as vaginal sex between a man and a woman. To do otherwise, she said, would be to negatively affect society's understanding of sexual intercourse, influencing even the perspectives of students.

The bill amending the Offences Against the Person Act seeks, among other things, to make rape gender neutral and to extend the offence to acts of penetration beyond penile penetration of the vagina.

While recognising the importance of the expanded scope of the law, as proposed, Mrs. Richards suggested the terminology "sexual act" be used instead of "sexual intercourse".

The terminology suggested is drawn from the Kosovo Provisional Criminal Code, a 2003 document drawn up by the United Nations. In that document, she said, "sexual act" is used in respect of rape and is defined to mean 'penetration of any part of the body of a person with a sexual organ, or the penetration of the anal or genital opening of a person with any object or any other part of that body'.

Mrs. Richards received robust support from Hyacinth Griffith, of the group, Lawyers for Jesus, based in Trinidad and Tobago. For the same reasons advanced by the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship, she suggested that the term "aggravated sexual assault" may be used as an alternative.