Should Sex By Deception Be Viewed As a Crime?

The movie By Any Means tests the new law “Rape by Deception”

My daughter Brooke has just starred in a kidnapping thriller (see above), which, apart from the usual thrills and fights, is based on the theme of non-consensual sex  and grooming.

One of the sex laws which has been getting a lot more media attention in the last couple of years is the one known as “rape by deception”.   This is when the perpetrator has the victim’s sexual consent and compliance, but gains it only through deception or fraudulent statements. It’s been around for a while, but only recently actually used in court.

The notable cases are as follows: Israel,  2008,  a man posed as a government official and persuaded women to sleep with him for state benefits.  In the UK,  2011 police officers obtained sex by “deceiving as to their identity”, and in  2015, a 25-year-old woman was sentenced to eight years in prison for pretending to be a man as a means of having sex with her female lover.

The CSF would love to garner viewpoints on this. Is this valid or  just an extension of the so-called rape culture which some feminists believe is sweeping the West. The Law Editor of Spiked Luke Gittos wrote in September 2015 that it was blurring the line between sex and rape.  If this is to be a law in equal balance (i.e. should apply to women as well as men)  then surely it is intrusive of just about every form of modern day living?   Lying about your age, facial surgery (to appear younger), bravado in all its forms, income, character etc. etc.  I jest a little of course, but just a little.  I assume there are limits.

With that in mind please go and see this new film which apart from Brooke who is kept captive in a chilly, paint-peeling  basement in New York, also features reality stars Michelle Money from The Bachelorette  and Jonathan Cheban (Keeping Up With the Kardashians), Thomas Gipson, Larese King and Wendy Heagy.

Directed by Leighton Spence it opens as the closing film of the Wexford Film Festival on the 27th November with tickets available here. Rhys Williams of Triventure Films, who has been following this particularly  interesting point of law, says  “We take an extreme example for entertainment. We then let the viewer determine who is the victim”.

For more information on the movie here is a link to the website