New Laws on Under-age Sex in Ireland

The Associated Press reports from Dublin on June 3, 2006 that Ireland has passed an emergency bill on under-age sex, and the Supreme Court ordered a man at the center of the controversy to be reimprisoned for having sex with a 12-year-old girl.

According to the report, these developments were the result of public outrage over a decision last week by the Ireland Supreme Court that declared a 1935 law governing statutory rape of minors unconstitutional on the grounds that the law did not provide men with a defense permitting men accused of having sex with girls aged under 15 to claim they thought the girl was older.