By James Martin McCarthy
Copyright belfastlive
An Alliance Party MLA has insisted that her proposed amendment to Stormont’s Justice Bill is not a so-called “smacking ban” as it does not create a new offence, but rather an attempt to close a legal loophole and safeguard children from assault. Speaking to Belfast Live , Lagan Valley MLA Michelle Guy said that children should have the same protection under law as adults when it comes to being a victim of assault. “The amendment itself isn’t particularly detailed. What it will do in effect is remove from law the defence of reasonable punishment, and that therefore means when there is a prosecution for assault, that the defence can’t kick in,” she said. “So at the minute, if you have an adult who struck an adult, and an adult who struck a child , when that’s going through the courts, and just bear in mind, that’s quite a high threshold already to be being prosecuted for assault, but if it comes to a child, that defense of reasonable punishment can kick in and that prosecution can be avoided. “So we remove that defence from our law, that won’t be there anymore. What that will do is close what professionals who are dealing with safeguarding have told us is a grey area, and they need that grey area removed so that they can better safeguard our kids.” Michelle Guy’s proposals mirror what is already in place in 70 countries across the world including Scotland, Wales, the Republic of Ireland and Jersey. “The experience of those countries have not been the fear that they’re going to start prosecuting parents, that’s not at all what this is about, this is about protecting kids from abuse, to remove legal cover there is right now for people who may be abusing their children, and the outworking is that people are redirected to support more positive parenting, and it has had a really positive effect in those jurisdictions. “We’re lagging behind in Northern Ireland, and our kids here don’t have the same protection in law as they do in those other parts of the UK. “England hasn’t brought it forward yet, but there are discussions at the minute that are active in terms of doing it in England as well.” Earlier this month, Justice Minister Naomi Long detailed in an answer to a written question from SDLP MLA Cara Hunter that she had initially circulated a draft paper to the Executive last year outlining her proposals to end the defence of reasonable punishment, but that it failed to get agreement from the wider Executive. Earlier this week, DUP MP Sammy Wilson stated that the party would not support the amendment as it removes a parent’s right to decide how to punish their child. Responding to this, Michelle said that she cannot understand how anyone could be opposed to the proposals. “I would love to understand why anybody would want to come out here on the side of providing cover for abusive behaviour towards our kids,” she said. “This is very clearly about removing that loophole in the law for providing additional safeguards, and I hear all parties talking about wanting to safeguard children , to safeguard our young people, so I’m not sure what the defence would be in terms of arguing against this. “I know the framing quite often in terms of this debate is around the creation of a smacking ban. That’s really the wrong emphasis. We are not creating a new offence here. We are simply removing a defence that already exists under the existing law of assault. “So there’s not going to be a new criminal effect there that parents now can be prosecuted because there’s a new offence created. There are people who should be prosecuted who are not being prosecuted right now because they have a defence. We want to remove that, provide that clarity in the law for those who are safeguarding our kids. “Hopefully, the effect of that will be that those who should be prosecuted will be, but we’re not at all coming after loving parents who are just doing some discipline within the household; that is not what the intention of this law is at all.” For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our politics newsletter here.
