Queensland Consolidated Acts

CRIMINAL CODE 1899 - SECT 210

210 Indecent treatment of children under 16

(1) Any person who—

(a) unlawfully and indecently deals with a child under the age of 16 years; or

(b) unlawfully procures a child under the age of 16 years to commit an indecent act; or

(c) unlawfully permits himself or herself to be indecently dealt with by a child under the age of 16 years; or

(d) wilfully and unlawfully exposes a child under the age of 16 years to an indecent act by the offender or any other person; or

(e) without legitimate reason, wilfully exposes a child under the age of 16 years to any indecent object or any indecent film, videotape, audiotape, picture, photograph or printed or written matter; or

(f) without legitimate reason, takes any indecent photograph or records, by means of any device, any indecent visual image of a child under the age of 16 years;

is guilty of an indictable offence.

(2) If the child is of or above the age of 12 years, the offender is guilty of a crime, and is liable to imprisonment for 14 years.

(3) If the child is under the age of 12 years, the offender is guilty of a crime, and is liable to imprisonment for 20 years.

(4) If the child is, to the knowledge of the offender, his or her lineal descendant or if the offender is the guardian of the child or, for the time being, has the child under his or her care, the offender is guilty of a crime, and is liable to imprisonment for 20 years.

(4A) If the child is a person with an impairment of the mind, the offender is guilty of a crime, and is liable to imprisonment for 20 years.

(4B) The Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 , section 161Q also states a circumstance of aggravation for an offence against this section.

(4C) An indictment charging an offence against this section with the circumstance of aggravation stated in the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 , section 161Q may not be presented without the consent of a Crown Law Officer.

(5) If the offence is alleged to have been committed in respect of a child of or above the age of 12 years, it is a defence to prove that the accused person believed, on reasonable grounds, that the child was of or above the age of 16 years.

(5A) If the offence is alleged to have been committed with the circumstance of aggravation mentioned in subsection (4A) , it is a defence to the circumstance of aggravation to prove that the accused person believed on reasonable grounds that the child was not a person with an impairment of the mind.

(6) In this section—

"deals with" includes doing any act which, if done without consent, would constitute an assault as defined in this Code.