High priority anti-grooming bill advances in Kentucky legislature 

FRANKFORT — A Kentucky Republican bill to criminalize the sexual grooming of minors cleared another legislative hurdle Thursday. 

The Senate judiciary committee passed House Bill 4, which is a high priority for House Republicans. The bill needs approval from the full House and a signature from the governor to become law. 

HB4, which has 42 sponsors, would add a punishment for when adults groom children for sex, filling a gap in Kentucky law. 

“We’ve got an increasing problem across our commonwealth … one in 10 children are sexually abused, and those are the ones that we know about,” primary sponsor Rep. Marianne Proctor, R-Union, told the committee. “Grooming is the intentional, manipulative and deceptive process where a predator developed a relationship with a child to prepare them for future acts of sexual abuse. What this bill seeks to do is to stop that behavior before it progresses to sexual assault.”  

HB 4 would add a Class A misdemeanor charge for grooming, unless the minor is younger than 12 years old, in which case it is a Class D felony, according to the bill. For those in trusted positions, grooming a minor is a Class D felony unless the minor is younger than 12, in which case it is a Class C felony. 

Kentucky ‘will not tolerate’ child grooming, House says with unanimous vote

The bill lays out exceptions for “lawful or legitimate” communications, including teaching curriculum on human sexuality or sexually transmitted diseases, age-appropriate conversations about puberty and sexuality between the child and their parent or guardian and more. 

Louis Kelly, the commonwealth’s attorney in Boone and Gallatin counties, said Thursday that the bill was carefully crafted to protect people who have “good faith communications” with youth. 

“This is an intent statute. We have to prove not only that they … committed certain objective functions, but they did so with ill intent. It’s an incredibly difficult barrier to do as a prosecutor,” Kelly said. “I think the only way we’re going to be able to prosecute people for this is when the intent is so manifest from what they’re doing.”