The defendant appealed against the imposition of an extended sentence under the 2000 Act for conviction involving sexual assault on a child and the possession of indecent photographs of children. The pre-sentence report spoke of his lack of insight into the harm he had caused and his refusal to undertake a Community Sex Offenders’ Programme. He argued that the basic sentence was less than twelve months and that therefore an order under section 28 was not available to the court, the extended sentence not being a sentence of imprisonment as such.
Held: The argument failed. The language of section 85 was clear. An extended sentence ‘is not, as the phrase might in ordinary language suggest, an order for a period of incarceration of defined length: it is an order for a period of restriction on freedom of the offender, which begins with a period of incarceration and then may include a period of release on licence and will end with a period during which the offender is liable to be ordered to serve the unexpired term if he reoffends during the currency of the term. All that an extended sentence does is adjust the length of the second (licence) period. Therefore, for the purposes of section 28, the whole length of the extended sentence is to be taken into account in determining the length of the qualifying sentence.’
and ‘We observe that, as a consequence of our interpretation of the statutes, the requirement that the appellant register for 7 years as noted by the judge should in fact be a requirement that he register for 10 years. That is not an element of his sentence which we are increasing, it is a condition which flows inevitably from the nature and length of sentence imposed upon him.’
Judges:
Rose LJ VP, Newman, Mitting JJ
Citations:
[2004] EWCA Crim 836, [2004] 2 Cr App Rep (S) 88
Links:
Statutes:
Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 85, Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 28
Citing:
Cited – Regina v Oliver etc CACD 21-Nov-2002
The defendants appealed their sentences for possession and distribution of indecent images of children. The court gave detailed sentencing guidelines for the offences. Distinctions were made for the gradations of pornography, from erotic posing . .
Per incuriam – Regina v Graham (S) CACD 2001
The court construed section 58 of the 1998 Act, looking at the requirement for a sex offender to register under section 1 of the Sexual Offenders Act 1997. The length of the registration obligation is determined by the length of the term of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Criminal Sentencing
Updated: 18 August 2022; Ref: scu.416171