Criminal Law (Rape) Act 1981

Interpretation.

1

1.F2[(1) In this Act

F1["Act of 2001" means the Children Act 2001;

"Act of 2017" means the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017;]

"aggravated sexual assault", "rape under section 4" and "sexual assault" have the meanings respectively assigned to them by the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act, 1990;

F1["applicable offence" means—

(a) a sexual assault offence, or

(b) an offence under section 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 21 or 22 of the Act of 2017;]

"complainant" means a person in relation to whom a sexual assault offence is alleged to have been committed;

"a rape offence" means any of the following, namely, rape, attempted rape, burglary with intent to commit rape, aiding, abetting, counselling and procuring rape, attempted rape or burglary with intent to commit rape, and incitement to rape and, other than in F3[section 2(2)] of this Act, rape under section 4, attempted rape under section 4, aiding, abetting, counselling and procuring rape under section 4 or attempted rape under section 4 and incitement to rape under section 4;

"a sexual assault offence" means a rape offence and any of the following, namely, aggravated sexual assault, attempted aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, attempted sexual assault, aiding, abetting, counselling and procuring aggravated sexual assault, attempted aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault or attempted sexual assault, incitement to aggravated sexual assault or sexual assault and conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing offences.]

(2) In this Act references to sexual intercourse shall be construed as references to carnal knowledge as defined in section 63 of the Offences against the Person Act, 1861, so far as it relates to natural intercourse (under which such intercourse is deemed complete on proof of penetration only).

(3) In this Act “ man ” and “ woman ” include respectively a male and a female person of any age;F4[].

Annotations

Amendments:

F1

Inserted (31.08.2024) by Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Act 2024 (28/2024), s. 6(a), S.I. No. 391 of 2024.

F2

Substituted (18.01.1991) by Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act 1990 (32/1990), s. 12, commenced as per s. 22(3).

F3

Substituted (31.08.2024) by Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Act 2024 (28/2024), s. 6(b), S.I. No. 391 of 2024.

F4

Repealed (18.01.1991) by Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act 1990 (32/1990), s. 21 and sch. ref. no. 5, commenced as per s. 22(3).