XN000022-1997-03-05 — Page 26

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Crimes (Amendment) Bill 1997

Following is the speech by the Secretary for Security, Mr Peter Lai, in moving the second reading of the Crimes (Amendment) Bill 1997 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Mr President,

I move the second reading of the Crimes (Amendment) Bill 1997.

The Bill seeks to increase the maximum penalties of certain sexual and related offences to reflect their gravity. It sends a clear signal that the community would not tolerate such crimes.

In response to a motion of this Council, we have reviewed the legislation relating to sexual assaults and improved the procedures adopted by the departments concerned in handling such cases.

In our review, we have selected the ten-year maximum penalty level for indecent assault as the benchmark since it is the most prevalent sexual offence and the penalty level was raised from five to ten years' imprisonment in 1991. Having completed our review, we propose to increase the maximum imprisonment terms of certain sexual and related offences to ten years. These offences include, for example, indecent conduct towards a child under 16 and intercourse with a defective. The seriousness of these offences are considered comparable to that of indecent assault.

We have paid particular attention to the offence of incest as it is a more traumatic experience and one over which the community has great concern. Having regard to the position in other common law jurisdictions and taking into account the views expressed by the Security Panel of this Council, we propose to increase the maximum imprisonment penalty of incest with women between the age of 13 and 16 from seven to 20 years. Women of this age bracket are more vulnerable and should therefore be offered increased protection. For incest with women of or above the age of 16, we propose to double the maximum imprisonment term from seven to 14 years.

As regards offences relating to vice establishments, we propose to raise the maximum imprisonment terms on offences concerning premises used as vice establishment or for prostitution from two to seven years, as these offences are less serious when compared with indecent assault. For offenders convicted on indictment of "keeping a vice establishment", we propose to raise the maximum imprisonment term upon conviction on indictment from seven to ten years and, upon summary conviction, from two to three years. We also propose to remove the maximum fine levels for these offences to allow the courts more flexibility in imposing an appropriate fine.