Q: My son had been in a three year relationship with a girl who is 2 years younger, they started dating when she was 14
Recently they split up and her mother is saying she is going to charge him with statutory rape. During there relationship the parents had him over, she was dropped off and picked up from our house from her parents, ive talked to her mother, father and they all were ok with the ongoing relationship. She was allowed to go on family trips with us and her mother bought my son and her daughter camping gear. Her mother let her stay at my ex husbands house with my son every weekend in the summer. Csn my son really be chargef with anything? He just turned 18 and she 16.
A:
It doesn't matter when they started dating. The critical question is this: how old were each of them when they first had sex?
See this:
"Massachusetts
The age of consent in Massachusetts is 16.
Section 23 of Chapter 265 of the General Laws of Massachusetts states:
"Whoever unlawfully has sexual intercourse or unnatural sexual intercourse, and abuses a child under sixteen years of age shall... be punished..." MGL 265-23
Section 35A of Chapter 272 states:
"Whoever commits any unnatural and lascivious act with a child under the age of sixteen shall be punished..."
However, Chapter 272, Section 4 sets another age of consent at 18 when the "victim" is "of chaste life" and the perpetrator induces them.
"Whoever induces any person under 18 years of age of chaste life to have unlawful sexual intercourse shall be punished." MGL 272-4"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_the_United_States#Massachusetts
And, in general, whether her parents were aware of the situation is immaterial. The idea is that "statutory rape" is a crime because the child doesn't have the legal capacity to consent; neither do the parents.
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