Jess Beckerling, the party’s spokesperson for Women and Children’s Safety, said it’s time for the practice to be scrapped from the legal process. “It is very common for convicted sex offenders to use their networks and their reputation to enable their crimes in the first instance, and then to rely on that reputation and those networks throughout their trial to reduce the severity of charges and sentences. “I would like to see any perpetrator whose perceived good character, networks and/or power might have facilitated or made possible their offending stripped of the privilege of good-character references,” Beckerling said.