A bill criminalising the distribution of intimate images without consent, Coco's Law, has passed all stages of the legislative process.
Minister for Justic Helen McEntee said: “The importance of ensuring that abuse in all forms and using any medium can be tackled cannot be under-estimated. The taking or sharing of intimate images without consent is abuse and will not be tolerated. T
“This new legislation will give An Garda Síochána the tools they need to make sure that those who commit this abusive crime can be prosecuted and, if prosecuted, our Courts will have sentences available that reflect the level of harm these crimes cause to their victims.”
The Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill, known as 'Coco's Law', was first brought forward by Labour's Brendan Howlin in 2017 after Nicole Fox died by suicide following years of online bullying.
The new legislation will provide for two new offences dealing with the non-consensual distribution of intimate images. The first offence will deal with the taking, distribution, publication or threat to distribute intimate images without consent, and with intent to cause harm to the victim and will carry a maximum penalty of an unlimited fine and/or seven years’ imprisonment.
The second offence will deal with the taking, distribution or publication of intimate images without consent without a requirement that the person intended to cause harm to the victim and will carry an offence of a maximum penalty of a €5,000 fine and/or 12 months’ imprisonment.
The legislation also provides that it will be irrelevant that a person may have consented to the taking of an image if it is subsequently published or distributed without their consent.
It will be an aggravating factor for the purposes of sentencing if the perpetrator of the offence is or was in an intimate relationship with the victim of the offence.
In addition, the legislation will update existing harassment legislation by broadening the scope of the offence of harassment to cover all forms of persistent communications about a person, not just indecent images, and to increase the penalty from seven to ten years to reflect the harm that can be caused by most serious forms of harassment.
Harassment is already an offence in the Ireland under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997.
In addition, the Post Office (Amendment) Act 1951, as amended by the Communications Regulation (Amendment) Act 2007 provides for Offences in Connection with Telephone which deals with sending messages that are grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character.
Separate legislation to include provision for an online safety commissioner has been proposed by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment, which published the General Scheme of the Online Safety Media Regulation Bill earlier this year and will be progressed by the new Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
