Manchester lawyer warns of rise in youths accused of sexual offences
Jessica Wilson has noticed the increase since becoming one of the first women in the country to start her own firm specialising in defending sexual offences
A Greater Manchester lawyer is concerned about the number of youths asking for her to defend them, when it comes to sexual offences.
Jessica Wilson is one of the first women in the country to start up her own legal firm specialising in defending sexual offences.
Jessica has been working in criminal law for 15 years, but now specialises in youth sexual offences at her own firm in Manchester city centre.
Jessica said: "When I started 15 years ago, you'd rarely come across a youth who had committed this type of offence, but now, fast forward 15 years, we get calls on a weekly basis of youths that have been accused.
"Younger people now have mobile phones and they're opened up at a much younger age, to online material that leads to the commission of sexual offences.
"A lot of what we have at the moment is teenagers in schools who have girlfriends and boyfriends, and they send each other intimate photographs... they think it's funny, and they'll send it on to their friends, but what they don't realise is they've actually distributed an indecent image of a child.
"We definitely need to have some awareness. I think some young children don't realise the age of criminal responsibility is 10, so if you're sending those around school, it's a criminal offence. I think they really need to know that and understand that they can be arrested, and they can be taken to the police station and put before the court.
"I have many clients who have been sort of 14, 15 who have been in police cells because they've distributed pictures, that they thought were funny of girls from school, and they've not realised it is a criminal offence.
"They’re not getting that education. One thing I'm hoping to do is go into schools and start to give some sort of education about what I do."