A child's consent can never, of itself, be a mitigating factor in sentencing for sexual offences against children under 16. The sentencing court must examine the circumstances in which consent was given — including the age difference, power imbalance, abuse of trust, and evidence of harm — rather than treating consent as reducing gravity or culpability. The presumption of harm underlying the absolute prohibition is unaffected by consent. It is open to an offender to seek to rebut the presumption of harm by independent expert evidence, but this is likely to succeed only in very limited circumstances.
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