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Liam Walker Secures Acquittal on Sexual Offences Act 2003 Test Case

On 8th June 2009 a jury at Luton Crown Court returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty in a test case brought under section 30(1) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

Both the complainant and the defendant were assessed as having very low IQs. Expert evidence was called to establish that they fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for having learning disabilities.

The trial, brought under the section 30(1) offence of "sexual touching of a person who was unable to refuse because of a reason relating to a mental disorder" was the first prosecution of its kind.

The decision to charge the defendant with the offence, having regard to his own intellectual limitations, raised extremely complex issues of law following the decision of the Court of Appeal in R v C [2008] EWCA Crim 1155.

In R v C the Court of Appeal had ruled that section 30 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 engaged Article 8 of the ECHR on the basis that it created a "significant interference" with the individual's freedom to engage in sexual activity. Whilst the Court of Appeal had already certified the issues highlighted in R v C as points of public importance, the case conducted by Liam Walker concerned a different subsection of the Act and raised more fundamental legal questions.

Should individuals with intellectual limitations caused by a mental disability have their freedom to engage in sexual activity regulated by the criminal law? Is it appropriate for adverse inferences to be drawn from the silence of those suffering from such limitations? Should special measures be afforded to defendants with such limitations?

Whilst the jury's verdict avoided the need for either the Court of Appeal or House of Lords to clarify the law in this area, questions raised by Liam Walker's submissions on the law of abuse of process, character evidence and inferences from silence will no doubt be litigated in future.

Liam Walker was commended by the Court and his instructing solicitor for his conduct of the case and is available to discuss the specific issues raised in this new area of law, through formal lecture or informal meeting.

For more information please contact his clerk at 15 New Bridge Street.

10 June 2009

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