Where a 19-year-old offender had taken advantage of a 12-year-old girl’s willingness to engage in sexual activity there were no exceptional circumstances that justified a non-custodial sentence; a community order was replaced by a sentence of three-and-a-half years’ imprisonment.
CHILD SEX OFFENCES CONSENT MITIGATION NON-CUSTODIAL SENTENCES RAPE OF CHILD UNDER 13 SENTENCING UNDUE LENIENCY WHETHER EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES JUSTIFYING NON-CUSTODIAL SENTENCE FOR 19-YEAR-OLD OFFENDER YOUNG OFFENDERS
Where a single mother had stabbed to death a man who lived on the same estate and who had been charged with sexual assault on her children, a sentence of 42 months’ imprisonment for manslaughter by reason of loss of control had been unduly lenient and was replaced by a sentence of seven-and-a-half years.
INTENTION KNIVES LOSS OF CONTROL MANSLAUGHTER MOTHER STABBING MAN CHARGED WITH SEXUAL ASSAULT OF HER CHILDREN PROVOCATION SENTENCING SEXUAL ASSAULT OF CHILD UNDER 13 UNDUE LENIENCY
A sentence with a minimum term of nine years and three months’ imprisonment imposed for nine counts of rape was quashed as the minimum term had been wrongly increased by six months to reflect a breach of a suspended sentence imposed for breach of a sexual offences prevention order. The offence for which the suspended sentence had been received was not a specified offence and therefore should not have been added to the minimum term.
BREACH CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT 2003 Pt 12 s.224 MINIMUM TERM MINIMUM TERM INCREASED FOR BREACH OF SUSPENDED SENTENCE OFFENCE FOR WHICH SUSPENDED SENTENCE IMPOSED NOT SPECIFIED OFFENCE Pt 12 s.225 RAPE s.224 s.225 Sch.15 SENTENCING SEXUAL OFFENCES PREVENTION ORDERS SUSPENDED SENTENCES
Sentences of six years’ imprisonment following a conviction for attempted rape and 30 months’ imprisonment, to be served concurrently, following a conviction for sexual assault, were not unduly lenient where the judge had taken into account totality, but had been motivated by mercy.
ATTEMPTS PREROGATIVE OF MERCY RAPE SENTENCING SEXUAL ASSAULT STARTING POINT TOTALITY OF SENTENCE UNDUE LENIENCY
The failure to provide exceptions to the law in Northern Ireland prohibiting abortion in respect of fatal foetal abnormality at any time, and pregnancies due to sexual crime up to the date when a foetus became capable of an existence independent of its mother, was contrary to the ECHR art.8.
ABORTION art.12 art.14 art.2 art.34 art.46 art.6 art.8 art.8(1) CORONERS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1959 1959 CORONERS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1959 s.14(1) CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1945 s.25 CRIMINAL LAW DISCRIMINATION ECHR 1950 art.1 EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS 1950 art.3 HUMAN RIGHTS INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT NORTHERN IRELAND OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSON ACT 1861 s.58 PROHIBITION ON TERMINATION OF PREGNANCY WITH FATAL FOETAL ABNORMALITY OR WHERE PREGNANCY RESULTED FROM SEXUAL CRIME RAPE RIGHT TO LIFE RIGHT TO RESPECT FOR PRIVATE AND FAMILY LIFE s.25(1) s.59 WHETHER BREACH OF ART.8 ECHR
A decision to prosecute a 12-year-old boy for rape of a child under 13 had been taken by the Crown Prosecution Service following extensive consideration of its impact on the defendant. There was no basis for saying that its decision was incompatible with his right to respect for his private life under ECHR art.8.
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ECHR 1950 EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS 1950 art.8 HUMAN RIGHTS HUMAN RIGHTS ACT 1998 PROSECUTIONS RAPE OF CHILD UNDER 13 RIGHT TO RESPECT FOR PRIVATE AND FAMILY LIFE SEXUAL OFFENCES ACT 2003 s.5 YOUNG OFFENDERS
Six convictions for making indecent images of children were inconsistent with not guilty verdicts reached on eight similar counts. Although the defendant had viewed the relevant images, that was true in respect of the counts on which he had been acquitted and there was clear evidence that when he saw indecent material, he deleted it.
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE INCONSISTENT VERDICTS INDECENT PHOTOGRAPHS OF CHILDREN
A conviction for sexual offences against a child was safe, as medical evidence adduced as fresh had not permitted confident review of a previous diagnosis so as to describe it as ill-founded; taken at its highest it neither supported nor refuted the allegations against the offender. The defence was still that any abuse was perpetrated by another and the jury had decided on the non-medical evidence.
CHILDREN CONVICTION FOR SEXUAL OFFENCES AGAINST CHILD CRIMINAL EVIDENCE CRIMINAL LAW EFFECT OF FRESH MEDICAL EVIDENCE FRESH EVIDENCE GROSS INDECENCY INDECENT ASSAULT MEDICAL EVIDENCE RAPE
A conviction for possessing false identity documents was quashed where the offence had erroneously been charged under the Identity Cards Act 2006 s.25(1)(a) instead of the Identity Documents Act 2010 and the Crown conceded that the Criminal Appeal Act 1968 could not be used to substitute an alternative offence.
CRIMINAL APPEAL ACT 1968 s.3 CRIMINAL CHARGES CRIMINAL PROCEDURE IDENTITY CARDS ACT 2006 s.25(1)(a) IDENTITY DOCUMENTS ACT 2010 s.4 LEGISLATION MISTAKE POSSESSION OF FALSE IDENTITY DOCUMENTS REPEALS s.25(1) s.6 SEXUAL OFFENCES ACT 1956
A sentence of six years’ imprisonment following convictions for historic charges of rape, indecency with a child and sexual assault, committed against a 13-year-old girl, was increased to 12 years’ imprisonment where the judge had departed from the sentencing guidelines without giving reasons for doing so and where the sentence imposed failed to reflect the totality of the offending.
“HISTORIC” OFFENCES AGGRAVATING FEATURES INDECENCY INDECENT ASSAULT OFFENCES AGAINST CHILDREN RAPE REASONS SENTENCING SENTENCING GUIDELINES STARTING POINT TOTALITY OF SENTENCE UNDUE LENIENCY
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