Attorney-General’s Reference (No 39 of 2002): CACD 3 Jul 2002

The Attorney general sought leave to appeal against a sentence for incidents of an indecent assault on children.
Held: Willis remained the guideline case. The prime aim was to reflect the damage to the children, but other elements to be considered included the need to protect the public. Best would be any system under which the court could be sure that the offender received treatment, but there was no present system under which the court could impose a short prison sentence which they could be sure would be followed by treatment. In this case the difficulties faced by the sentencing judge in finding an appropriate sentence meant that his decision could not properly be set aside.

Judges:

Lord Justice Kay, Mr Justice Harrison and Mr Justice Ouseley

Citations:

Times 11-Jul-2002

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

CitedRegina v Willis CACD 1975
The court considered the range of sentencing for buggery of and indecent assault on a male child. Lawton LJ said: ‘The sentencing bracket for offences which have neither aggravating nor mitigating factors is from 3 to 5 years, and the place in the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Criminal Sentencing

Updated: 16 August 2022; Ref: scu.174313