Judge bans woman, 29, from having s*x as she lacks the 'mental capacity' to consent

A judge in the UK has banned an autistic woman with an IQ of 64 from having s*xual intercourse on the grounds she does not fully understand she could say no to such actions.

Mr Justice Hedley said the 29-year-old lacks the mental capacity to consent to having s*x, and made the order to protect her best interests. He said she had to be protected from 'potentially exploitative and damaging' relations in the future, as she had already been involved in risky behaviour with people.

The order prevents the woman from having s*x and also means anyone trying to have s*x with her can be charged with s*xual assault or rape.

Mr Justice Hedley said: 'It is strange, but nevertheless true, that even the freedom to make unwise decisions is one that the court is required to guard and only to restrict if and when the best interests of (the woman) so require.'

The case was seen at the controversial Court of Protection, which was set up in 2007 to decide on medical treatments for individuals judged by psychiatrists to lack mental capacity.

It controls the finances of some of Britain’s most vulnerable people, and the fund is believed to run into several billions pounds.

The court has come under criticism for being secretive but it has insisted it is acting in the best interests of the individual concerned.

Justice Hedley is no stranger to very difficult moral cases, last year he oversaw a case where a mother tried have her 21-year-old daughter sterilised due to her ‘significant learning difficulties’.

The bid was subsequently withdrawn.

He was also in charge of a case in which a gay man and his lover took the lesbian mother of his children and her partner to court for access rights.

He said the impact of the couples’ conflict on the two sisters in the case, had caused at least one of them had suffered significant emotional harm.

Source Daily Mail UK

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UK Breached BASA Agreement, FG Insists

Lagos — The Federal Government yesterday insisted that the United Kingdom (UK) government breached the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) it entered into with Nigeria.

The Media Assistant to the Minister of Aviation, Mr Joe Obi, in a statement yesterday said the UK government must respect the sanctity of the agreement, saying the current controversy had nothing to do with Arik Air.

"While the Minister of Aviation maintains that Arik Air, a Nigerian flag carrier has not been fairly treated by the sudden denial of its slots from Abuja into London Heathrow, the main issue at stake here is not about Arik Air but about the need to respect the spirit and letter of BASA agreement which is predicated on the principles of equity, fairness and reciprocity.

The federal government recently issued an ultimatum to the British authorities to restore the slot denied Arik air into London Heathrow recently, or risk a reprisal treatment on its carrier, British Airways.

"Those who argued that the fate of Arik Air with regard to the loss of its slots into London Heathrow was a consequence of purely independent, commercial decisions by ACL which is in charge of slot allocation into Heathrow are missing the point, if not being entirely mischievous,"Mr Obi argued.

He said British authorities are under obligation as far as BASA is concerned to ensure that whatever 'independent' and 'commercial' decisions are taken by its corporate citizens do not infringe on bilateral agreements, "otherwise, business concerns in the UK, and indeed other countries around the world would, as has happened with ACL, resort to unfair practices to edge out competition with its indigenous companies ostensibly on the excuse that they act independent of the authorities concerned."

It added that the Ministry of Aviation under the present dispensation will not stand idly while Nigerian flag carriers are unfairly treated when BASA agreements clearly state otherwise.

The statement explained that if this is allowed to happen, an undesirable precedent would have been set whereby the rights and privileges of Nigerian airlines would blatantly be violated by apparently independent business concerns in other countries other that the UK.

"We regret to note that the letter and spirit of BASA has not been respected as far as the treatment of Arik Air is concerned.

But it is Arik Air today and it could as well be another Nigerian flag carrier tomorrow. Our position is that whether it is Arik Air or any other Nigerian airline, the reciprocal cornerstone of BASA must be maintained and the Nigerian government is not about to shirk its responsibility to protect its corporate citizens whose rights under BASA are surreptitiously being violated under different guises," the statement said.

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