Two convictions for rape were safe where a judge had admitted evidence of an offender’s single previous conviction for sexual assault. The offences all demonstrated sufficiently unusual behaviour, capable of demonstrating the offender’s propensity to commit offences of the kind charged, to permit admission under the bad character provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2003.
A sentence of four years’ imprisonment was appropriate for an offence of sexual assault where the offender had pretended to be a taxi-driver, targeting lone, drunken females, and where he had prevented his victim from leaving his car before taking her to a dark area to assault her in extremely frightening circumstances. As the force […]
Although imprisonment for public protection was a sentence of last resort, it was appropriate where there was nothing to say that the risk posed by a dangerous defendant would be significantly reduced by the time of the projected release date from a determinate or extended sentence.
Where a trial proceeded on the basis that different counts of criminal liability required separate consideration and there was a difference in the cogency of detail in the evidence on the different counts, a decision of the jury was not unlawful due to inconsistency where an offender was found guilty on a count of indecency […]
A judge had correctly imposed a sentence of imprisonment for public protection upon an offender who had committed a series of sexual assaults against several girls under the age of 13. However, given the non-penetrative nature of the offences, a minimum term of six years was too long and was replaced with a minimum of […]
The court considered and gave guidance on the principles applicable to the new mandatory sentencing provisions for the protection of the public from dangerous offenders contained in Criminal Justice Act 2003 s.224 to s.229 and the factors that judges should take into account when deciding whether one of the new sentences must be imposed.
