During the course of a major ongoing Gibraltar court case about the age of consent laws, a fascinating factoid has turned up which deserves to be shared with a smaller audience.

In Gibraltar, it is actually illegal for a man to have sex with a woman if he knows she is “an idiot or an imbecile”. Unless, that is, she is his wife.

The law says the following in a section of the Criminal Offences Act entitled “Intercourse with Defectives”.

“A man who has unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman whom he knows to be an idiot or imbecile is guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for two years,”

“It shall be a defence to a charge under this section to prove that at the time when the offence is alleged to have been committed the man had reasonable cause to believe that the woman was his wife.”

Interestingly, there is no indication that it is an offence for a woman to have sex with a male idiot. The law on this point, it seems, only works in one gender direction. Neither is it defined what is meant by the words idiot or imbecile.

Absolutely fantastic stuff. Now, annoyingly, someone will want to change this just for the sake of it.

Hat-tip to the Gib Chronicle