SENTENCING

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.

A sentence of four years’ imprisonment imposed after trial for indecent assault was unduly lenient where the offender, who was akin to a stepfather to a seven-year-old child, had committed sexual acts against her, forcing her to perform oral sex on him. A sentence of seven years’ imprisonment was substituted.

A sentence of two years’ immediate imprisonment was quashed and a 36-month community order with a supervision requirement and a Sex Offender Treatment Programme requirement was substituted for four counts of making indecent photographs of a child. According to the sentencing guidelines, where there was sufficient prospect of rehabilitation, a community order with a Sex Offender Treatment Programme requirement could be a proper alternative to a short or moderate custodial sentence.

A suspended sentence for seven offences of indecent assault on step-siblings of a very young age, carried out over a protracted period some 20 years earlier, had not been unduly lenient. The interruption to the offender’s treatment programme that an immediate custodial sentence would cause, and the potential resulting exacerbation of the situation, amounted to an exceptional circumstance justifying the suspended sentence under the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 s.118.

Where an offender made indecent images of children at a variety of levels of seriousness, a sentence was to be imposed on the most serious category of counts, taking into account the totality of the offending and having regard to aggravating and mitigating factors, before credit was given for any guilty pleas. Concurrent sentences were then to be imposed on the remaining counts.

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.

In a case where the defendant was accused of sexual offences against his daughter, the judge had been correct to refuse to admit the evidence of a retired psychiatrist and psychotherapist: her thesis of false memory syndrome lacked evidence to support it.

A three-year community order imposed on an offender for multiple offences of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity was replaced with a term of three years’ imprisonment. The manipulative nature, frequency and persistence of the offending, targeting vulnerable victims including two under 13, required an immediate custodial sentence even though the offender had voluntarily sought help for his behaviour.

Where an offender had been convicted of historic sexual offences in respect of his step-daughter, who was five or six years’ old at the time of the abuse, the appropriate sentence was a term of five years’ imprisonment. The key to the sentencing exercise in such cases was to assess the harm from the offending and the culpability of the offender, taken with any aggravating and mitigating factors, while always bearing in mind the statutory maximum at the relevant time.