Senator Dan Debicella, R-Shelton, today helped secure Senate passage of legislation he co-sponsored that will help protect Connecticut’s children by keeping convicted child sexual predators off the streets. The legislation was co-sponsored by all Republican State Senators, and passed the Senate with a bi-partisan 36-0 vote.

SB 1458, An Act Concerning Jessica’s Law, creates a new crime of aggravated sexual assault of a child younger than 13-years old. Conviction of a first offense calls for imposing a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 25 years, while conviction of a second offense imposes a mandatory minimum sentence of 50 years. The legislation is modeled after laws passed in Florida and 38 other states.

“Like every other responsible person, I abhor the idea that there are people in the world who sexually abuse children. Yet rarely does a day go by when the horrifying details of what some people are capable are not graphically laid out for all to see. As responsible adults, it is up to us to take these perpetrators off the streets for a very long time, both to punish them and to prevent them from hurting anyone else,” said Senator Debicella.

Senator Debicella said that the strict penalties of Jessica’s Law would both serve as a deterrent for some offenders, and remove those who commit these heinous crimes against children from society.

“The penalties for sexually assaulting a child should fit the crime. These criminals bring terror into the lives of children, a lifetime sentence of horror from which these innocent young victims may never be paroled. What we can do for these young victims is to make sure that the people who hurt them are severely punished. What we can do for all of our state’s children is to take these criminals off the streets. This legislation does both,” said Senator Debicella.

The legislation passed today by the Senate is subject to further action by the House of Representatives.