Sex with 15yo girl is not consensual

Here is news from S. Carolina, where a mom has to use a gun to protect her daughter when there is no man living in the house:

There was no way a Fort Mill mother of three was going to let the grown man – who sneaked into her daughter’s bedroom Sunday to have sex with her – leave the house the same way he came in.

Minutes after he finished having consensual sex with the 15-year-old, Addison Pittman tried to leave through the same bedroom window he used to get inside the house at 2 a.m., the girl’s mother said.

The mom wasn’t having it. Enraged, she instructed her oldest daughter, 29, to grab her gun. It was a BB gun, “but he didn’t know that,” she said.

No, the guy did not have "consensual sex with the 15-year-old". That is impossible, as the age of consent in S. Carolina is 16.

Authorities identified the suspect as 23-year-old Pittman. At gunpoint, Pittman told the girl’s mother he was 17. The daughter told deputies she and Pittman “had been in contact” for about five months, the report states. She knew he was 23, and he knew she was 15.

The mother, who is not being named to protect the identity of her daughter, told The Herald on Tuesday that she recently learned her daughter and Pittman met on Kik, an instant messenger found on smart phones. ...

The girl made a mistake, her mother said, and is being punished for it. For the next two months, she’s grounded.

Her cell phone has been confiscated and her computer is gone. Most of all, her bedroom window is securely shut: “Nobody will be getting in these windows,” the mother said.

“It’s not a light matter,” she said, adding that she wants stricter charges levied against online predators, even first-time offenders. Pittman, who lives in Charlotte, has no criminal history in North or South Carolina, records show.

If not for police intervention, Pittman “would’ve gotten beat up,” the girl’s mom said. “I think I would’ve beaten him to a pulp. ...I wanted to. I wanted five minutes with him. I asked the officer to please give me five minutes, that’s all I wanted. And, I would’ve put him in the hospital.”

No mention of the dad, but this mom appears to have more guts than most of the dads here in California.

A reader complains that I do not mention the Catholics in connection with child sex abuse, so here is the latest from the BBC:

In a rare interview with an Italian newspaper, the Pope said "no-one else has done more" to root out paedophilia.

He said the Church had acted with transparency and responsibility, yet it was the only institution to have been attacked.

Last month, the UN strongly criticised the Vatican for failing to stamp out child abuse and for allowing cover-ups. ...

A UN report into the abuse scandals published last month called on the Pope to "immediately remove" all clergy who were known or suspected child abusers.

It also accused the Vatican of systematically placing the "preservation of the reputation of the Church and the alleged offender over the protection of child victims" - something it has strenuously denied.

I do not know who is right here, but there is a big difference between "known" and "suspected" child abusers. The Vatican should certainly remove all known child sex abusers, but I cannot agree with punishing those who are merely suspected.