Taking photographs of mothers breastfeeding in public is a crime in England and Wales The law will form part of a bill to be passed by Parliament
Taking photographs of mothers breastfeeding in public without their consent is considered a crime in England and Wales.Campaigners welcomed the decision, calling it a "victory for breastfeeding mothers".
The law will form part of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill that will pass through Parliament.
Justice Minister Dominic Raab also confirmed another amendment to the bill to give victims of domestic abuse more time to report crimes to police and to "close loopholes" in the law that offenders exploit to escape justice.
He confirmed that the six-month time limit in common assault cases involving domestic abuse would be extended after the BBC revealed nearly 13,000 such cases in England and Wales which had been withdrawn in the past five years.
Manchester designer Julia Cooper launched the campaign to make it illegal to take photographs of breastfeeding mothers after her own experience in a local park last April.
"I sat down to breastfeed my daughter and noticed a man on another bench looking at us," she told the BBC."
"I looked back to tell him I had caught his eye, but undeterred he pulled out his digital camera, attached a zoom lens and started taking pictures of us.
[BR][BR]Ms Cooper said she was "completely shocked and devastated" by the incident, but her troubles continued after Greater Manchester Police told her no crime had been committed and there was nothing they could do.
"I just felt it was so wrong that we had been breached in this way and there was nothing the police could do to help," she added.
He then contacted local Labour MP Jeff Smith and his colleague Stella Cracey, who had her own experience of being photographed by a teenage girl on a train while feeding her child, telling the BBC it was a horrific experience that made her feel so aware."
The pair tabled an amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill in June, calling for the law to be changed.
However, while Home Secretary Victoria Atkins described the taking of such photographs as "unacceptable, creepy and disgusting behaviour", she said the government was awaiting a review from the Law Commission on the best course of action.
Now there has been a change from the Ministry of Justice, with government minister Lord Wolfson proposing his own amendment to the bill in the Lords.
It will be a new offence "to record images or otherwise observe breastfeeding without consent" and to be found guilty, the offender "must be acting for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification or humiliation."
Source: skai.gr / BBC
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