Also the situation with Saville is clearly more than him being unlucky and just the actions of a dirty old man.

He wasn't old when it started.

Doesn't it depend on their respective ages? An 18/19/20 year old having sex with a 15 year old, thinking she's 16, doesn't seem to me to be the end of the world. A different matter if he's a 30+ year old. Celebs know that they will attract under age "groupies" and that many of them will try to look older. There should be more of an onus on them to make sure, rather just accept that the girl is not under age.

I agree mostly, except I'd say other than asking for a photo ID girls can still lie about their age, and asking a girl for ID can somewhat kill the mood.

I've had consensual sex with at least a couple of eighteen year olds since I turned 40.

But I've known 100% that they were of age because I wouldn't have dared compromise myself.

Does it make me a dirty old man?

I'd say not. There was very little attempt to procure them on my behalf. It was definitely initiated the other way round.

If you're not sure, don't, would be my advice.

This raises an interesting point: are relationships between people where there is a large age gap less acceptable than they once were?



Quite interestingly, you rarely see such couple in the UK these days, but you do seem them on the Continent.



What does this mean? Is it a comment on how generations in the UK tend to socialise within their own age groups, and families don't socialise together as much any more, creating a process of young people being socialised among a range of age groups and equally opening up opportunities for relationships to develop?

Personally I don't think there is a difference between an 18 year old and a 30 year old having sex with an underage individual, whether girl or boy. An 18 year old is an adult and a 30 year old is an adult and neither has any business having sex with a 15 year old.

If in doubt, don't.

And what creates that doubt? You're in a club that has a criteria for entry of being over the age of 18, it would be reasonable to expect that a girl in there is above the age of 16 wouldn't it? She looks around 18/19/20, like most of the other girls in the club. You ask her how old she is and she says she's 18.

What puts any doubt in your mind that she's actually 15?

Is she reading a Judy Blume novel?

In the eyes of the law, yes.



However, in reality, you don't suddenly go from being a child to being an adult in the slick of fingers between the last minutes of your 16th year and the start of your 16th birthday – or any other arbitrary age, for that matter.



Some young people of either sex will appear far older than 14 or 15, and will also behave in such a manner. Whereas some young adults over 16 (or 18, for that matter) will neither look nor behave in an 'adult' way.



Part of that is sheer confidence.



And in terms of navigating through life, most people have to take what they see at face value. Or if they ask someone their age and are told something, and that person is in venue where only an adult should be, then it is reasonable to conclude that they are of age.

Well true but looking back at it he does.