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Assault of a child under 13 by penetration

A person commits an offence if he

·        intentionally penetrates the vagina or anus of another person.  Placing a finger, or indeed anything else, into the inside of a vagina or anus is penetration.  The penetration does not have to be deep. Any degree of penetration, however slight, is penetration.   Placing a finger into the crack, between the cheeks of a bottom is not penetration, if the finger does go inside the anus.

·        the penetration is sexual.  The reason for this is so that, e.g.  doctors carrying out medical examinations are not guilty of any offence.  No one has suggested that, if D** put his finger into C**’s vagina and/or anus, it was anything other than sexual.

·        the other person is under 13.  C** was aged ** at the time.  There is no doubt that she was under 13.

So the only questions that you have to answer, separately in relation to Counts * and *,  having regard to all the evidence and the directions which I give, are

Are you sure that D** placed his finger inside C**’s anus?

Are you sure that D** placed his finger inside C**’s vagina?

 

If the answer is “yes”, he is guilty.  If the answer is “no”, he is not guilty of assault by penetration. 

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