Australian Capital Territory Current Acts

CRIMES (CHILD SEX OFFENDERS) ACT 2005 - SECT 132ZH

    (1)     A person commits an offence if the person—

        (a)     publishes protected identity information about a protected person in relation to a proceeding on an application for an order for the person under this chapter; and

        (b)     intentionally publishes the information.

Maximum penalty: 100 penalty units, imprisonment for 1 year or both.

    (2)     A person commits an offence if the person—

        (a)     publishes protected identity information about a protected person in relation to a proceeding on an application for an order for the person under this chapter; and

        (b)     is reckless about whether the information is protected identity information about the protected person.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units, imprisonment for 6 months or both.

    (3)     It is a defence to a prosecution for an offence against this section if the protected person—

        (a)     is not a young person; and

        (b)     consented to the publication of the protected identity information about himself or herself before the publication happened.

Note     The defendant has a legal burden in relation to the matters mentioned in s (3) (see Criminal Code

, s 59).

    (4)     In this section:

"protected identity information", about a protected person, means the following:

        (a)     the person's name;

        (b)     information about the private, business or official address, email address or telephone number of the person, or that would allow those contact details to be worked out;

        (c)     information that discloses the identity of the person, or would allow the identity of the person to be worked out.

"protected person", in relation to a proceeding on an application for an order for a person under this chapter, means—

        (a)     the person; or

        (b)     a victim of a registrable offence committed by the person; or

        (c)     a person mentioned in the proceeding as a person at risk (however described) because of conduct that is proposed to be, or is, prohibited under the order.

"publish" means communicate or disseminate information in a way or to an extent that makes it available to, or likely to come to the notice of, the public or a section of the public or anyone else not lawfully entitled to the information.

Note     The Criminal Code

includes an offence for publishing identifying information about children or young people the subject of a childrens proceeding (see s 712A).