A grandfather’s convictions for the sexual abuse of his granddaughter were upheld. There was no proper basis for rejecting the granddaughter’s original complaints, which had been detailed in her ABE interview and maintained throughout the trial, and the reliability of a retraction statement she made shortly after sentencing had to be rejected.
A judge had not erred when sentencing an offender to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 10 years, as a sentence of “last resort” for extreme child sex offences committed over a number of years against his own children. The sentence was also not unduly lenient, despite the minimum term not being increased when […]
The court expressed concerns about the professional response to the death of a 13-month-old child who had died suddenly and in unexplained circumstances whilst in her parents’ care. In particular, it criticised the police failure to undertake any real investigation until nine months after the child’s death and the local authority’s failure to take legal […]
Although a sentence of four years’ detention in a young offender institution imposed for sexual assault of a child under 13 and of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity was severe, it was not manifestly excessive.
