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- Couples, both heterosexual and homosexual, will be allowed
to have sex in public places under controversial proposals to be unveiled
by the Home Office this week.
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- Planned reforms to the law on sexual offences would sweep
away the current total ban on public gay sex.
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- Outdoor sex will be illegal only if police can prove
those involved should have known it would seriously offend other people.
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- The recommendations are part of a Home Office review
which also calls for the burden of proof in rape cases effectively to be
reversed. The review, set up by Jack Straw, has decided to abolish any
distinction in law between homosexual and heterosexual sex.
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- Sex outdoors will be permitted unless it can be proved
those involved should have known doing so would cause 'alarm or distress
or give offence' to others - a much higher legal requirement than at present.
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- Opponents will fear that the proposals could open the
way for public displays of sex in nightclubs, for instance, where organisers
could plausibly claim that no one present was likely to be upset.
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- Currently public gay sex - including acts in lavatories
- is specifically outlawed under a 1967 Act and is punishable with two
years in jail.
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- Indulging in heterosexual sex in public can be prosecuted
as 'outraging public decency'. Police need only prove that two people saw
the couple, and that the couple should have known they were likely to be
seen.
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- The proposals are part of a wide-ranging shake-up of
the law on sexual offences. A review was ordered two years ago to increase
protection for children and vulnerable people.
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- Panel members were asked to take into account the Human
Rights Act, which makes the European Convention on Human Rights part of
English law from October.
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- That outlaws discrimination on the grounds of sexuality.
Ministers recognise that legislation currently going through Parliament
to equalise the gay age of consent at 16 is not enough to rebut charges
that homosexuals are unfairly discriminated against in law.
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- The review calls for the burden of proof in rape cases
to be effectively reversed. Under the proposals, a man accused of rape
will have to prove he did not commit the offence - reversing the centuries-old
presumption of innocence.
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- The review was chaired by a civil servant but included
gay activists and representatives of rape crisis groups in its core team.
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- Other gay lobbyists sat on an 'external reference group'.
Ministers plan to publish the 150-page report as a consultation document
before Parliament rises for the summer on Friday.
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