Doug Beattie stands by bid to raise age of criminal responsibility to 12 - after expert brands it 'just another arbitrary cut off'
The former UUP justice spokesperson has stood by his bid to raise the age at which children can face criminal prosecution – but criticised the way the matter has been handled by the Alliance Party.
Doug Beattie – who recently quit the Ulster Unionists – was responding to criticism from a child safeguarding expert, who criticised his plan to raise it to 12.
Jim Gamble said it was “just another arbitrary cut off, introduced to mitigate the push to 14” – and that the “entire issue needs proper, evidence based consideration, not being pushed through as an amendment to something else”.
Mr Beattie tabled an amendment to Naomi Long’s justice bill when he was still in the UUP, in defiance of the party leader Jon Burrows’s position on the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) remaining at 10.
At the time, it was understood to have been a compromise proposal, given there was an Assembly majority for 14. However, Mr Beattie has now told the News Letter that he would back a raise to 12 in standalone legislation, but after detailed scrutiny and with the support of relevant agencies.
The Upper Bann MLA told the News Letter: “Without a doubt MACR should not have been dealt with through an amendment. Like Scotland it deserved a stand alone bill that could be debated, scrutinised and all intended and unintended consequences discussed.
“However, with Alliance bringing forward an amendment to raise MACR to 14 they opened the discussion before any such stand alone bill could be discussed.
“It is because of this that a range of ideas have now been brought forward with my own giving the Public Prosecution Service the ability to make a decision of whether a child aged 10 or 11 knew the consequences of their actions, while nothing stops the PSNI from investigating any crime.
“The principle of keeping children out of the criminal justice system through diversionary action remains the core principle”.
Jon Burrows has warned that the ability of police to investigate crimes would be impacted by the changes – saying their ability to intervene, investigate, make arrests and use bail conditions if necessary would end.
He said under Alliance’s proposals, police could do nothing if a youth, one day short of his 14th birthday, committed a serious assault on a victim – as “it would not be a crime and the victim would get no justice whatsoever”.