AN Australian who launched a bid to decriminalise incest in Scotland has suggested couples who are related could be sterilised or have an abortion to avoid producing children with birth defects and genetic disorders.

Speaking for the first time about his petition which was blocked by MSPs last week, Richard Morris also claimed Scotland is “breaching human rights” and equated incest legislation with Nazi eugenics laws.

The secretive Aussie refused to give any details about his personal life and insisted revealing anything would be “inappropriate” because “it could constitute an invasion of privacy”.

But Morris was happy to discuss his attempt to change Scots law, criticising the Scottish Parliament’s highly respected Public Petitions Committee for dismissing his call to legalise incest on Thursday, after a debate lasting only one minute.

He is in the process of trying to alter the law on incest in Australia, New Zealand, France and “every state in the US”. He has also behind an e-petition to the European Parliament and claims to be writing a book about incest.

Morris first turned his attention to Scotland when he heard about the case of father and daughter Stephen and Kirsty Paterson, who were jailed at Ayr Sheriff Court in 2010 for having sex when she was in her mid-20s and he in his mid-40s. The father claimed he hadn’t met his daughter, who was given up for adoption as a baby, until she found him on Facebook. After they were reunited they began a sexual relationship and the pair were each handed sentences of 16 months.

Morris said: “It seemed a very unjust punishment for two lovers who were minding their own business and not doing any harm to anyone. I think I wrote to Her Majesty the Queen and asked for her to intervene, but was referred to Nicola Sturgeon. Having such an unsatisfactory response from officialdom, I attempted a petition [to the Scottish Parliament] in 2016.”

When asked about the risk of birth defects and genetic abnormalities in children of couples who are closely related, Morris said: “Genetic testing and optional abortion of defective embryos might reduce the possibility of a couple passing on two copies of a defective gene to a child. Voluntary sterilisation of either member would entirely prevent defective genes being passed on. It might cost taxpayers less to provide such services than to prosecute and imprison incestuous couples.”

Morris also took a swipe at MSPs for blocking his bid to change the law after only one minute of debate.

He said: “The committee's response to the petitions I have sent are conspicuously brief”. He suggested closure of the petition on the basis that the Scottish Law Commission undertook a report on this issue in 2007 was unfair.

He said: “Ten years may not seem a very long time, but a lot has happened since then, such as same sex marriage. Just because the politicians on the committee agreed to close the petition without even a debate of the issue doesn't affect the rights or wrongs of the issue.

“Scotland seems to be breaching people's human rights when it jails them for adult consensual incest. If you are going to jail people for having a risk of creating children with birth defects, which is essentially the basis of eugenics which was practiced by the USA and the Nazis and already banned, then you need to make it apply to everyone with a higher than average risk of having children with birth defects, such as cigarette smokers, alcohol drinkers, women and men over 35-years-old, people with existing genetic defects, people who work with toxic chemicals and radioactive substances.

“Why not jail those with Downs Syndrome and those who have sexually-transmitted diseases that can harm the unborn child?”

The law on incest, the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act of 1995, forbids men and women who are blood relatives from having sexual intercourse. This includes siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews.

To avoid a conviction the defendant must prove they did not know they were related, did not consent to have sexual intercourse, or were married outside Scotland.

A Scottish Law Commission report on the issue in 2007 concluded that the majority view was for retaining the offence and the current definition. MSPs used the report as a reason for dismissing Morris’s petition last week.

Similar petitions from Morris were dismissed by the committee in January and September 2016.

He was the only person to have signed the latest petition, which called on MSPs “to urge the Scottish Government to decriminalise incest between persons of legal age of consent, and grant people in adult consensual incestuous relationships the same right to marry as all other consenting adults”.

Morris said he was disappointed that his bid was blocked but plans to submit another petition. “Perhaps Santa will bring me a better present next year,” he added.

Conservative MSP Brian Whittle, who sits on the petitions committee, said: “I’ve heard it twice and do not feel the need to give it any more thought than was given at committee.”

Deputy convenor of the committee, SNP MSP Angus MacDonald, described Morris’s petition as “vexatious”. SNP MSP Rona Mackay, who also sits on the committee, added: “I don't see any merit in it whatsoever.”

There are no restrictions on who can submit a petition to the Scottish Parliament and only one signature is required before it can go in front of MSPs.

Rona Mackay explained: “Anyone from outside Scotland can raise an issue as long as it relates to matters within the Scottish Parliament's responsibility, in this case, the justice system.”

SNP MSP Angus MacDonald said last week only people who live in Scotland should be permitted to submit petitions.

“It’s something that we have to review,” he said. “The fact that [Morris] doesn’t even live in Scotland begs the question of whether we should even be accepting any petitions from outside the country. It’ll certainly be my intention that the whole procedure will be looked at.”

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The Parliament’s rules do not require that petitioners live in Scotland.”