Good news at least.
Ooh, that perhaps makes the above question moot re: the silliness about them arguing papers (notice of proceedings) hadn't been correctly served while literally being represented in proceedings in the relevant court.
It will be quite interesting to watch what happened next, there will be some discovery I guess, the NDA agreement she signed might need to be revealed etc..
Would you also like to raise the age of consent to 18 in this country?
Otherwise it's a bit difficult to see where the outrage is. You're outraged he may have broke the law in the US, but if he'd just slept with her here that would be OK and he totally wouldn't be "a nonce"? Or he would still be a nonce because, regardless of UK law, it's wrong for a 40 year old to sleep with a 17 year old?
You've got to have a line in the sand somewhere and obviously when you get extremes then things still get a bit iffy.
I think 16 is fine in general because that's generally teenagers getting horny with eachother, would be silly to prosecute that. However we generally wouldn't find it acceptable for someone in a position of authority (say a teacher etc..) to start sleeping with a 16 or 17 year old, nor do we tend to find it acceptable for them to star in porn films or accept payment for sex.
At some point though you become an adult and can make your own decisions re: whether to partake in that sort of stuff and 18 is generally when you're considered to be an adult in the UK.
It's still rather icky for a middle-aged man to sleep with an 18 year old but it's perfectly legal for them to consent to it, presumably, that sort of thing involves the middle-aged man either being wealthy or a celebrity etc.. or just literally paying them. We shouldn't police that sort of thing but can certainly express the opinion that it's a bit gross.
It isn't legal for a 17 year old to be trafficked and told to have sex with someone as a favour for her employer as is alleged to have happened here. It's also alleged that he's had sex with her in the US in both NYC and the US Virgin Islands, both of which would also be criminal offences under US law regardless of any trafficking allegations.