Tougher laws planned to fight rising sex crimes against children

Tougher sentences for sex offenders are on the way amid a “painfully upsetting” rise in crimes against children.

A new Public Safeguarding Bill, approved by Cabinet, aims to overhaul sexual offence laws and update legislation to counter new threats through social media and AI.

Reports of threats to children have doubled in the last three years, something Minister for Social Development Isaac Rankine has described as a “painfully upsetting trend in the wrong direction”.

Referrals to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub increased from 1,431 in 2022 to 2,773 last year. Sexual offences recorded by police also jumped 20% in 2025 to 125 reported crimes, with children accounting for more than half of all victims.

Speaking in Parliament last month, Rankine said Cabinet had been stunned by the data and extent of crimes against children during a recent presentation. Several times over the last five years, he said, the number of sexual offences recorded by police was greater than both robberies and firearms offences combined.

“We cannot let our children continue to experience such crimes,” he said.

Police and prosecutors believe the reform is needed to bring legislation into the 21st century and ensure the punishment properly fits the crime for sex offenders. Some elements of the Penal Code have not been updated for decades, leaving archaic statutes on the books.

One extreme example is the requirement to prove consent was not given in cases of child rape.

Rankine highlighted specific concerns for girls in care homes. The minister referenced more than 200 incidents where young girls had absconded from care in the past year, saying they were at increased threat of exploitation.

He told Parliament that adults are deliberately targeting girls at heightened risk.

“Let us speak plainly in this honourable house. This is not misguided behaviour; this is exploitation, this is abuse, and this is rape.”

Predators warned: ‘We are coming for you’

Deputy Governor Franz Manderson backed the reform and said more must be done by the community to protect children. “If you are harming children, if you are neglecting our children, if you are having sex with children, you need to stop now. We are going to come for you, and we are going to get you.”

Manderson, who has chaired the Child Safeguarding Board since its inception in 2016, said the picture that had emerged was more serious than anyone had anticipated. “The issues are graver than we all imagined,” he said.

When perpetrators are caught and brought to justice, Rankine said the sentences were often less severe than their “heinous crimes” deserved.

Both were speaking as the minister announced the establishment of a working group to reform legislation and policy in an effort to address the troubling trend.

Trevor Gibbs, deputy chief officer in the Ministry of Social Development and Innovation, who is leading that group, said the rise in offences against vulnerable people had not garnered the same headlines as other crimes.

“They happen behind closed doors. They’re sort of a bit taboo, whereas you hear a liquor store was robbed with a gun, and everyone is on alert, rightfully so. But it doesn’t happen as frequently,” Gibbs said.

Cabinet approved the drafting of a bill, provisionally titled the Public Safeguarding Bill, on 22 April.

Prosecutors see rising caseload

The scale of the problem is also reflected in the caseload arriving at the Director of Public Prosecutions’ office.

“I’ve signed two indictments today, I signed two indictments yesterday, both for children, both for sex offences committed against children,” DPP Simon Davis said in a recent interview.

Davis attributed the rising numbers to improved investigations, greater public awareness, and older cases being reinvestigated and charged, in some instances many years after the fact.

The increased reporting is also a result of increased monitoring and reporting from adults in positions of responsibility.

Gibbs highlighted an incident in which a librarian’s referral triggered an international investigation.

“When librarians are making referrals, something is happening,” Gibbs said. “The level of understanding within the public has increased exponentially over the last few years.”

But as reporting improves, the legislation used to charge and sentence offenders has struggled to keep up. One specific problem lies in the section of the Penal Code which covers rape.

“It is an old piece of legislation and it needs to be updated,” said Davis

‘Children cannot consent’

Other sex crimes in the statute have been revised to clarify that children cannot legally consent to sexual activity, but the rape provision has not.

“When a judge comes to sum up the case …  in respect of rape, you’ve got to consider whether that child was consenting,” Davis said.

That is something that will change in the new draft, Gibbs indicated.

“The way that law is written as it relates to rape it implies or requires that the jury evaluates whether or not a 12-year-old child gave consent. That shouldn’t even be part of the question.”

In practice, the gap has affected charging decisions, with some offenders prosecuted for defilement, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years for offences against children aged under 12 years, rather than rape, which carries a maximum of life imprisonment.

A Court of Appeal decision in 2022 upheld the conviction of a man found guilty of defiling two girls aged between 7 and 11, while noting that the offences could have been charged as rape.

The judgment stated. “Given that these children could not have consented, and that these offences might have been charged as rape, it seems to us that thought needs to be given as to the appropriate balance in the Sentencing Guidelines between sentences for defilement and rape in circumstances such as the present.”

Davis said the court made clear that a rape conviction would have significantly increased the sentence imposed.

Despite the legislative gap, Davis said his office now advises prosecutors to charge rape where the evidence supports it.

“My strong advice to my team is to charge rape where the child is under the age of 13, because that’s generally what’s happened: it’s difficult to conceive of a situation where a child under 13 could ever be consenting,” he said.

Tackling sex offences online

Beyond the consent gap, the reform effort is also targeting how sexual offending has migrated online, an area where Cayman’s legislation is acknowledged to be significantly behind.

“We know that there are things happening online that we need to get our hands around and be able to charge these predators appropriately,” Gibbs said.

The existing provision, which covers use of ICT networks to defraud, abuse, annoy, threaten or harass, has been tested only a handful of times and is widely regarded as too vague, Gibbs said.

Online grooming and sexual conduct are not adequately captured by the current statute.

The Public Safeguarding Act will seek to address that, with Gibbs saying the intention is to future-proof the legislation as far as possible.

“We want this to be as future-proofed as we possibly can, understanding that in a year, what is available via AI and other things, it will be completely changed,” he said.

Positions of trust involving teachers, youth workers, and similar figures will also be included in the new legislation. This will enable specific charging of offences rather than a general abuse of trust offence.

The bill will also extend protections to vulnerable adults, described by Gibbs as a known and longstanding gap. Persons with intellectual or physical disabilities or mental health challenges currently lack adequate legislative protection, and the Public Safeguarding Act is intended to close that gap alongside parallel amendments to the Disabilities (Solomon Webster) Act.

The working group bringing the legislation together includes representatives from the DPP’s office, the Ministry of Social Development and Innovation, the Ministry of District Administration and Home Affairs, the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service, the Ministry of Health, Environment and Sustainability and the Ministry of Education and Training, as well as the Attorney General’s Chambers.

Ultimately the aim is for the attorney general to bring legislative changes to Cabinet.