§ Mr. JannerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many(a) men and (b) women have been prosecuted for offences involving child pornography, child prostitution or child sexual abuse, respectively, for each of the last five years for which records are available; and how many of those cases involve children who had been reported as missing.
§ Mr. John Patten[holding answer 19 December 1988]: The available information is given in the table. It is not possible from the information held centrally to identify those prosecutions involving children who had been reported as missing.
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Persons prosecuted for offences involving child pornography, child prostitution or child sexual abuse England and Wales Number 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 Child pornography1 Male 12 18 22 10 22 Female — — — — 1 Child prostitution2— Male — — — 1 2 Female 1 3 — — 2 Child sexual abuse3 Male 3,200 3,129 3,320 3,162 3,723 Female 29 35 45 49 52 1Protection of Children Act 1978 sections 1.6—taking indecent photographs of children. 2 Sexual Offences Act 1956 section 28—persons responsible for girl under 16 causing or encouraging her prostitution. 3Includes only those sexual offences where the victim is known to be aged under 16 ie.: buggery or attempted buggery with a boy under the age of 16 or with a woman or an animal, indecent assault on a male or female person aged under 16, unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16, incest with girl under 13, householder permitting unlawful sexual intercourse with girl under 16, abduction of unmarried girl under 16 and gross indecency with children. Excludes sexual offences where the age is not separately available, eg: rape.