An application for a writ of habeas corpus by a prisoner who had been sentenced to imprisonment for public protection when his offence pre-dated the coming into force of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 failed. The sentencing judge had had competent jurisdiction to direct both imprisonment and a minimum term. Her order could not, therefore, […]
Magistrates had erred in dismissing the appeal of a convicted sex offender against a decision of a detective, acting on behalf of the chief constable, not to end the offender’s notification requirements.
In calculating the time to be served pursuant to an order under the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 s.116, justice required account to be taken of time spent in prison between recall to custody to serve the balance of a licence period for a previous offence and sentencing for a new offence committed […]
A discretionary life sentence imposed under the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 for assault on a child under 13 by penetration was not excessive. The offender was a predatory paedophile with previous convictions for sexual offences against children and the offence was of sufficient seriousness to warrant life imprisonment.
The Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 s.86 applied to the totality of a sentence even where part of the overall sentence imposed was in respect of sexual offences committed after September 30, 1998.
The Sexual Offences Act 2003 s.82 was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights 1950 art.8 in subjecting certain sex offenders to notification requirements indefinitely without the opportunity for review. As a matter of principle, an offender was entitled to have the question of whether the notification requirements continued to serve a legitimate purpose […]
An offence of possessing an indecent photograph of a child contrary to the Criminal Justice Act 1988 s.160 was not a “sexual offence” within the meaning of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 s.85(1)(a) and an extended sentence of imprisonment could not, therefore, be imposed in respect of it.
Sentences of four and two years’ imprisonment were appropriate in the case of a husband and wife who had involved two 14-year-old girls in sexual activity.
An order under the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 s.86 extending the licence period of a sentence until the end of the full length of the custodial term should not have been made where the psychiatric evidence was that the offender, who had been convicted several years after he committed the offence, was […]
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.
