LAW TO TACKLE DRUG RAPES

Law changes targeting drug rape and sex between older women and under-age
boys are being signalled by the Government.

Labour MP Dianne Yates, who has campaigned for new laws about drug rape,
welcomed the changes yesterday.

It had been almost impossible to gain convictions for the crime, despite
laws which already make it illegal to stupefy someone for the purposes of
having sex, or where it was not reasonable to assume someone had given
their consent.

"Basically, it has been too easy to get off on a technicality," Ms Yates said.

But a warning about the law change going too far was sounded by ACT NZ MP
Stephen Franks. The courts would need clear guidelines about when someone
was too drugged or drunk to give their legal consent to sex, he said.

Parliament was told yesterday the Cabinet had agreed to an overhaul of sex
offence laws, prompted in part by the case of Wellington swimming coach
Stacey Friel, who admitted a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old boy.

Ms Friel escaped prosecution because of a legal anomaly that outlawed sex
between men and under-age girls but not women and under-age boys.

The loophole would be closed as part of a wider overhaul of the Crimes Act,
including a law targeting drug rape, Acting Justice Minister Lianne Dalziel
said.

"The Government has agreed to include among the matters that do not
constitute consent to sexual connection that the person is asleep,
unconscious or too affected by alcohol or drugs to have the capacity to
consent to sexual activity."

Police began a national advertising campaign this month about the dangers
of drug rape amid warnings of an epidemic.

It was sparked by a spate of cases involving women having drinks spiked
while in inner city Hamilton bars.

But the police officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Senior
Sergeant Glenn Dunbier, said yesterday only a few of the cases of spiked
drinks resulted in complaints of sexual assault and rape.

Wellington QC John Billington believed the changes signalled by the
minister were significant. The law would need to be carefully drafted.

"I would see it as a can of worms." The defence of an alleged sexual
offender would be based on reasonable grounds that the person has consented.

"If the person is unconscious, you would hardly be able to say that your
consent was based on reasonable grounds. If, however, a person is affected
by a barbituate or drug then it becomes a much more difficult assessment."

The Government is yet to draft the law changes. But Ms Yates said changes
that made it illegal to disable somebody for the purpose of sex were being
looked at.

"Basically if you're out of it, you legally can't give consent to sex."

But it would be up to the courts what "out of it meant", including whether
that included being "tipsy".