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The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 When Victoria came to the throne, the age of consent for a girl was just 12. In 1875 this was raised to 13. In 1881, the anti-vice campaigner and chamberlain of the city of London, Benjamin Scott, instigated a Criminal Law Amendment Bill to protect young English girls from being transported to the continent for 'immoral purposes'. It took another four years before the Bill became law. Enlisting the press By the summer of 1885 the Bill had been passed by the House of Lords twice and rejected by the Commons twice. Fearing that it would fail once again, Scott enlisted the help of William Stead Stead infiltrated the London underworld, talking to prostitutes, pimps and brothel keepers. Daringly, he actually 'bought' a 13-year-old girl from her mother for £5, making it clear, he claimed, that the girl was being sold into prostitution.
Stead's revelations were published in a series of articles in the Pall Mall Gazette in July 1885, under the title 'The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon'. The result was a huge outcry of public indignation. Copies of the paper sold faster than the presses could turn them out. The newsagents W H Smith refused to sell the paper because of its shocking content, but the Salvation Army The government, in the midst of a political crisis of its own, was forced to re-address the Bill as a matter of urgency.
The Criminal Law Amendment Act was passed on 14 August 1885. It raised the age of consent for girls to 16, making sexual assaults on girls under 13 a crime, and on girls between 13 and 16 (and also on 'imbecile' women) a misdemeanour. The Act also made it a crime to engage in white slavery or to abduct girls under 18 for immoral purposes. It also raised public awareness of sexual offences against minors. Between August 1885 and September 1886, The Times reported twelve times as many cases as in the previous year and a half.
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