A SENTENCE of life imprisonment is to be introduced for the offence of piercing a person's skin with a syringe containing infected blood or pouring infected blood over someone, in legislation to be published by the Government today.
The legislation will also provide, for the first time, for an offence of stalking, for the abduction of children out of the State by a parent and also provides for a new offence of endangerment from conduct which creates a risk to the lives of others.
The legislation, entitled the Non-fatal Offences Against the Person Bill, is to be presented to the Government by the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen. It is the first major update of the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861.
The heavy sentences for using syringes containing infected blood stem from the sharp rise in this type of offence in recent years. There were 1,200 recorded offences last year. Until now the maximum sentence has usually been about four years.
The life sentence is to be introduced in cases involving piercing the skin with a syringe containing contaminated blood or pouring contaminated blood onto another person.
The offences of injuring or threatening another person with a syringe will carry a sentence of 10 years, as will the offence of spraying or pouring blood on another person or threatening to do so.
Possession of a syringe or blood in a container intending to injure or threaten will carry a maximum sentence of seven years. Placing or abandoning a syringe in any place, in such a manner that it injuries or is likely to injure another person, will become an offence with a maximum sentence of five years.
The Bill proposes powers for the gardai to search people and seize syringes or containers as well as power of arrest without warrant in specified circumstances.
Section 7 of the Bill provides that in a prosecution for possession, the court or jury can regard possession of the syringe or container as sufficient evidence of intent to injure or intimidate in the absence of any adequate explanation by the accused.
It also provides a new offence of harassment aimed at stalkers. Where proven this will carry a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment.
It provides for a new offence of abduction out of the State of a child by a parent in what are commonly known as "tug-of-love" cases.
As part of the reform of the 136-year-old legislation, it also provides for the new offence of endangerment which is designed to deal with conduct which creates a substantial risk of death or serious harm to another.
The Government Bill has also been in preparation for some time and will result in the repeal of the greater part of the Offences Against the Person Act and restate, in modern statutory form, the law relating to the main non-fatal offences against the person.
Mrs Owen promised some months ago that legislation would be introduced to deal with the growing menace of syringe robberies. About 300 were recorded in 1994, rising to over 1,200 last year. In most detected cases the syringes were found not to contain HIV or hepatitis-infected blood but the proposed legislation will take into consideration the level of threat and fear instilled in the victim.