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California Penal Code 288.5: Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child

Penal Code 288.5 is California’s most serious offense regarding the sexual abuse of a child. The section is charged when the defendant is accused of:

(1) engaging in 3 or more lewd acts with a child under the age of 14;

(2) these lewd acts happened over a period of time, at least 3 months in duration; and

(3) the accused lives in the same home with the minor child, or had repeated access to the child.

Essentially, Penal Code 288.5 is charged when the person is suspected of molesting a child repeatedly over a sustained period of time. The accused person usually is a parent, a step-parent, a cohabitant of the house, a teacher, a babysitter or a person who otherwise has consistent contact with the child.

A person convicted of California Penal Code 288.5 will face at least 6 years in prison, and could face up to 16 years in prison. At sentencing, a judge examines all of the circumstances and decides whether to impose a shorter or longer prison sentence.

If you or a loved one is being investigated, accused or prosecuted for Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child, contact one of our lewd conduct criminal defense attorneys. Although the charge is very serious, it is not uncommon for allegations of this sort to be false or greatly exaggerated.

The Text of California Penal Code 288.5:

(a) Any person who either resides in the same home with the minor child or has recurring access to the child, who over a period of time, not less than three months in duration, engages in three or more acts of substantial sexual conduct with a child under the age of 14 years at the time of the commission of the offense, as defined in subdivision (b) of Section 1203.066, or three or more acts of lewd or lascivious conduct, as defined in Section 288, with a child under the age of 14 years at the time of the commission of the offense is guilty of the offense of continuous sexual abuse of a child and shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for a term of 6, 12, or 16 years.

(b) To convict under this section the trier of fact, if a jury, need unanimously agree only that the requisite number of acts occurred not on which acts constitute the requisite number.

(c) No other act of substantial sexual conduct, as defined in subdivision (b) of Section 1203.066, with a child under 14 years of age at the time of the commission of the offenses, or lewd and lascivious acts, as defined in Section 288, involving the same victim may be charged in the same proceeding with a charge under this section unless the other charged offense occurred outside the time period charged under this section or the other offense is charged in the alternative. A defendant may be charged with only one count under this section unless more than one victim is involved in which case a separate count may be charged for each victim.