Launched by paedophile-hunter Cheyenne O’Connor in early January, it has long surpassed the 1,000 signatures required to trigger a response from the relevant minister – in this case Home Affairs Minister Len Norman – and is the only active petition currently awaiting reply.
Miss O’Connor hopes more people will back her call, which currently has over 2,300 signatures.
She said that she would be lobbying for support in St Helier on Saturday near the New Look store.
The mother-of-two, who poses as underage youngsters on online dating sites to lure offenders, has helped to compile evidence, which has led to 12 convictions in Jersey.
She said the lack of response from the States had been disappointing.
‘It seems like no one in power wants to see change and that worries me,’ she said.
Miss O’Connor is also planning a protest so people can voice their feelings about a perceived lack of adequate sentencing for crimes against children, which is to be held on 16 February in the Royal Square.
The petition calls for a mandatory minimum sentence of three years for those ‘found guilty of abusing, or attempting to abuse, our children’ and for offenders to be placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life.
The Island’s Attorney General, Robert MacRae, has said Jersey was already tougher on sentencing on some paedophile offences than the UK and that sentencing was a complex issue.
But Miss O’Connor said the courts seemed to be tougher on drugs crimes than offences that could affect the Island’s children.
St Saviour Deputy Jeremy Maçon also asked the Home Affairs Minister about the petition in the written questions for this week’s sitting of the States Assembly.
‘Will the minister be looking to change the relevant legislation to allow different categories of offences, and the application of different sentences to such offences, as is the case in other jurisdictions, such as the UK (where possession, creation and distribution of material are treated differently) and, if not, will the minister explain why not?’ he asked.
In his response, Mr Norman said the Island’s laws in this regard were ‘in line with equivalent provisions in England and Wales’.
Those found in possession of indecent images are subject to penalties of up to five years in prison, while those involved in making images or permitting them to be made, or being involved in distribution can face up to ten years in prison.
Mr Norman said Jersey’s courts used the COPINE (Combatting Paedophile Information Networks in Europe) system which grades offensive images from A (the most serious) to C (least serious).
‘Rather than rely on sentencing guidelines, for which there is no mechanism in Jersey, our Courts simply apply the COPINE scale directly to determine the severity of sentence,’ he said.
‘Jersey distinguishes between the images offences in the same way as England and Wales, with the same maximum penalties in law.
‘The analysis of “seriousness” is based on the same underlying value system (although expressed differently) and, in general, a more severe sentencing regime is applied by the Jersey Courts to all such offences.’
