SENTENCE LENGTH

A determinate sentence of two years was appropriate in the case of a 27-year-old man who had pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl.

A multiple-counts indictment under the Criminal Procedure Rules 2014 r.14.2(2), which allowed multiple instances of similar offences to be charged as a course of conduct, would not be properly drafted unless it specified a minimum number of occasions on which the offending was alleged to have happened. Otherwise, where a defendant was convicted on such an indictment, a sentencing judge could not know how many times the jury believed the offence to have been committed, and fairness would require him to sentence on the basis that it was more than once, but no more than twice.

A total sentence of five years’ imprisonment imposed following guilty pleas to making indecent images of children, distributing indecent images of children, possessing extreme pornographic images and causing a child to engage in sexual activity was reduced to four years. The sentencing judge had failed to categorise properly the nature of the defendant’s activity relating to the imagery in accordance with the relevant sentencing guidelines, in particular that he had simply downloaded the majority of the indecent photographs rather than participating in their production.

A trial for three specimen offences of sexual activity with a child had been fair, even though the complainant’s cross-examination was cut short due to her extreme distress. The defendant’s principal defence had been put to her, and there was other evidence upon which the jury could rely. The resulting sentence of nine years’ imprisonment was appropriate given that the defendant had committed numerous similar offences against the complainant while the sentencing guidelines were aimed at a single offence.

When an offender was sentenced for historic sexual offences, he was not to be sentenced on any count to more than the maximum term available at the time of the offending. That said, sentencing had to reflect modern attitudes, and the court could take account of modern sentencing guidelines.

Not guilty verdicts returned by a jury in respect of two of five counts of historic indecent assault did not demonstrate that the judge’s refusal to stay the prosecution on the ground of abuse of process due to delay and the consequent loss of evidence was mistaken, or that the verdicts were illogical or in any other way unsafe.

The Northern Ireland Court of Appeal reiterated the approach set out in R. v McKeown (Gary) [2013] NICA 28, namely that although assistance might be derived from the aggravating and mitigating features identified by the England and Wales Sentencing Guidelines Council in its definitive guidance, judges and practitioners in Northern Ireland were not constrained by those guidelines.

An aggregate sentence of 28 months’ imprisonment following a guilty plea to breach of a sexual offences prevention order and making and possessing indecent images of a child, mainly of level 1, was too high. An aggregate sentence of 18 months was appropriate.

It was not arguable that either a total sentence of 29 years’ custody with an extended licence period of six years imposed on a former rock band singer for various sexual offences against children and young persons, or a total sentence of 17 years’ imprisonment imposed on a woman who had allowed the singer to sexually assault her 12-month-old baby daughter, were manifestly excessive.