Section 127Part 5 — Offences Injurious to the Public in General
Rape
←→ Navigate · Click subsection badges to collapse · Press ? for help
127. (1) A person who rapes another person commits an offence.
A person commits rape if —
the person has unlawful sexual intercourse (whether vaginal or anal) with another person who at the time of intercourse did not consent to it; and
at the time the person knows that the other person does not consent to the intercourse or the person is reckless as to whether the other person consents to it.
A person also commits rape if the person induces another person to have sexual intercourse with them by impersonating their spouse or civil partner.
If, at a trial for a rape offence, the jury has to consider whether a person believed that the person was consenting to sexual intercourse, the presence or the absence of reasonable grounds for such belief is a matter to which the jury is to have regard in conjunction with any other relevant matters in considering whether the person so believed.
In subsection (4) — “rape offence” means a rape or attempted rape, or aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring rape or attempted rape, or incitement to rape.
For the purposes of this section, a person is deemed not to have consented to sexual intercourse if that person’s acquiescence is obtained —
by threat of force or use of force;
by means of threats or intimidation of any kind;
by fear of bodily harm;
by means of false representations as to the nature of the act; or,
in the case of a married woman, by personating her husband.
On a trial for rape, the jury may find the accused guilty of —
sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of twelve years;
sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of sixteen years;
indecent assault on a person;
administering drugs to obtain or facilitate intercourse; or
common assault.
The use in this Act of the word “man” without the addition of the word “boy” or vice versa shall not prevent the provision applying to any person to whom it would have applied if both words had been used and similarly with the words “woman” and “girl”. Penal Code (2026 Revision) Section 128 c Revised as at 31st December, 2025 Page 59