The High Court has dismissed a constitutional challenge brought by an 18-year-old male accused of sexual offences arising from alleged incidents involving another teenager in January 2023.
Mr Justice Garrett Simons ruled that the "peer consent" defence under the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006 can lawfully be limited to cases where the complainant had actually reached the age of 15. A reasonable but mistaken belief that a younger complainant was 15 does not bring an accused within that defence.
The applicant, identified only by the pseudonym Luke, was aged 15 years and four months at the time of the alleged incidents. The complainant was 14 years and nine months. Both are now 18. Their identities are protected by law, and the judgment stressed that the applicant remains presumed innocent.
The challenge concerned a section 3 charge of engaging in a sexual act with a child under 17. The applicant argued that excluding a reasonable mistake about whether the complainant had reached 15 was inconsistent with constitutional requirements concerning criminal culpability and equality before the law.
The court rejected both arguments. It held that the legislation already provides a defence where an accused reasonably believed a child had reached 17, meaning criminal liability does not arise without any consideration of mental state. The separate peer-consent defence is a limited exception designed for consensual activity between older children close in age.
Mr Justice Simons also found that using age 15 as a threshold for legal capacity to consent was rationally connected to the legitimate aim of protecting children while recognising limited autonomy for older teenagers.
The judicial review application was dismissed in full. The underlying criminal prosecution, which had been adjourned pending the challenge, can now proceed. The judge provisionally proposed no costs order in favour of the State and a legal-aid recommendation for the applicant, subject to any party seeking a different costs order by April 17, 2026.