CRIMINAL LAW (INCEST PROCEEDINGS) ACT, 1995

AN ACT TO AMEND THE PUNISHMENT OF INCEST ACT, 1908, AND TO PROVIDE FOR RELATED MATTERS. [5th July, 1995]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:

1 “Act of 1908”.

1.—In this Act “the Act of 1908” means the Punishment of Incest Act, 1908.

2 Exclusion of public from hearings of proceedings under Act of 1908.

2.—(1) In any proceedings for an offence under the Act of 1908, the judge or the court, as the case may be, shall exclude from the court during the hearing all persons except officers of the court, persons directly concerned in the proceedings, bona fide representatives of the press and such other persons (if any) as the judge or the court, as the case may be, may, in his, her or its discretion, permit to remain.

• (2) In any proceedings to which subsection (1) of this section applies the verdict or decision and the sentence (if any) shall be announced in public.

3 Anonymity of person charged with offence under Act of 1908 and person to whom offence relates.

3.—(1) After a person is charged with an offence under the Act of 1908, no matter likely to lead members of the public to identify that person as the person charged or to identify any other person as a person in relation to whom the offence is alleged to have been committed shall be published in a written publication available to the public or broadcast.

• (2) If any matter is published or broadcast in contravention of subsection (1) of this section, the following persons shall be guilty of an offence namely:

• (a) in the case of matter published in a newspaper or periodical publication, the proprietor, the editor and the publisher thereof,

• (b) in the case of matter published in any other written publication, the publisher thereof, and

• (c) in the case of matter broadcast, any person who transmits or provides the programme in which the broadcast is made and any person who performs functions in relation to the programme corresponding to those of the editor of a newspaper.

• (3) Nothing in this section shall be construed as—

• (a) prohibiting the publication or broadcasting of matter consisting only of a report of legal proceedings other than proceedings at, or intended to lead to, or an appeal arising out of, a trial of a person for an offence under the Act of 1908, or

• (b) affecting any prohibition or restriction imposed by virtue of any other enactment upon the publication or broadcasting of any matter.

• (4) In the section—

“broadcast” means broadcast by wireless telegraphy of sound or visual images intended for general reception, and cognate words shall be construed accordingly;

“written publication” includes a film, or a recording (whether of sound or images or both) in permanent form but does not include an indictment or other document prepared for use in particular legal proceedings.

4 Provisions in relation to offences under section 3.

4.—(1) A person guilty of an offence under section 3 of this Act shall be liable—

• (a) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding £10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both, or

• (b) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding £1,500 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both.

• (2)
• (a) Where an offence under section 3 of this Act has been committed by a body corporate and is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of a person, being a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, that person as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of an offence and be liable to be proceeded against and punished as if he or she were guilty of the first-mentioned offence.

• (b) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, paragraph (a) of this subsection shall apply in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his or her functions of management as if he or she were a director or manager of the body corporate.

• (3) It shall be a defence for a person who is charged with an offence under section 3 of this Act to prove that at the time of the alleged offence the person was not aware, and neither suspected nor had reason to suspect, that the matter alleged to have been published or broadcast was matter specified in the said section 3.

5 Amendment of section 1 of Act of 1908.

5.—Section 1 of the Act of 1908 is hereby amended—

• (a) in subsection (1), by the substitution of “life” for “a term not exceeding 20 years” (inserted by the Criminal Justice Act, 1993) and “felony” for “misdemeanour”, and

• (b) by the deletion of subsection (3).

6 Repeal of section 5 of Act of 1908.

6.—Section 5 of the Act of 1908 is hereby repealed.

7 Short title.

7.—This Act may be cited as the Criminal Law (Incest Proceedings) Act, 1995.