Offenders exploit legal loophole in Sex Offences Act to escape justice | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

If you will pass hundreds of pieces of criminal justice legislation (usually by cramming lots of different issues into omnibus bills) this kind of thing is inevitably going to happen. In the abstract, it’s a legally amusing situation – you know a crime has been comitted, but because there were two different crimes before and after 1 May 2004 (even though they are functionally the same crime) you can’t convict. Funny “Uh oh” rather than funny “Ha ha”, particularly if you happen to be one of the victims the Government was rushing headlong to (be seen to) assist.

Calls to mind the wonderful moments in The Trial of Tony Blair when Blair discovers that it’s his own fault he can be DNA fingerprinted, and extradited without proper testing of the case.

Copyright Matthew Taylor 2002-2007