A sex offender could not be prosecuted for an alleged sex assault on a young child because his victim said it took place on a truck travelling between Scotland and England, MSPs have heard.
Victims’ campaigners have urged Holyrood to close a loophole that prevents prosecutors from punishing sex offenders who prey on their victims across UK borders.
Holyrood’s Justice Committee last week heard an offender had to be prosecuted twice because he took covert photos of a woman taking a shower in England but stored them in Scotland.
The committee heard of another cross-border loophole that saw a charge against a man convicted of abusing his stepdaughter dropped because the child could not say which part of the country she was in.
The Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm Bill is designed to address cross-border difficulties but campaigners fear it may still have loopholes.
It is also meant to criminalise “revenge porn” images taken consensually in a relationship but distributed following a break-up. But victims’ campaigners have called for the definition to be extended to include intimate texts and audio.
They also called for “creep shots” such as covert snaps up skirts or down blouses to be criminalised in the bill.
Nicola Merrin of Victim Support Scotland said: “Quite a few years ago we supported a lady whose daughter had disclosed sexual abuse since an early age by her stepfather.
“The stepfather had a truck and some of the abuse happened on this truck that was travelling between Scotland and England.
“The offender was prosecuted for this crime but for the incident that happened on the truck, because the girl couldn’t disclose where that happened because she didn’t know where she was, the procurator fiscal said: ‘We cannot prosecute this specific offence. We can look at everything else but not this specific offence’.
“That was quite distressing and obviously confusing to the mother and the daughter.”