Roman Polanski

[HAL9000]

Breaking News: Roman Polanski escapes extradition to US

[Loz]

The Chair Wrote:

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>

> 2) The dictionary definition of "paedophile" is

> simply "a person sexually attracted to children"

Ah, but what is a child? My understanding that "paedophile" is technically a word pertaining to pre-teens. Of course, the English language is changing continually and that definition is probably changing to "anyone below the age of consent". Though, of course, there are two - well, three - ages of consent in the UK - 16 for most cases, through to 18 for homosexuals and anyone who has a position of trust with the individual involved. I believe there is no age of consent for lesbians.

And that leads to the question of "age of consent where?" Spain, for instance, still has an age of consent at 12. Wikipedia has a useful map showing ages of consent ranging from 20 down to 12 - and even a country or two down at 9, which is frankly unbelievable and rather sickening.

[RosieH]

I think Loz's point (and earlier Daizie's) is a good one.

A 13 year old girl is not the same as a 3 year old girl, although it's not remotely clear cut and I don't quite know how I would even begin to draw the line.

At 14 I was clubbing regularly and doubtless snogged a few guys who were over 18. At 15, a friend of mine was picked up by a famous singer in a club and went home with and slept with him (graciously he paid for her cab home in the morning). Were these guys paedophiles? I don't think so - they didn't know how old we were. Had they known, I still don't think they would have qualified as paedophiles - they weren't attracted to us because we were children, but because we were lithe young women.

What Polanski did was despicable, but I"m unconvinced it makes him a paedophile.

[Tarot]

Everyone hides in Switzerland. probably even Bin Laden,

[DJKillaQueen]

I personally think Bin Laden is dead. But there's no doubt that the money that funds most of the world's terror groups is sat in Swiss banks.