Charles Hamer successfully appeals sentence in child sex case

Tuesday 31st July 2012

The defendant pleaded guilty to a number of offences of historic sex abuse and also some contemporary offences relating to the possession of child pornography. Counts five to seven related to offences of indecent assault between 1965 and 1967 on a girl not expressed to be under the age of 13 in the indictment. The maximum sentence was therefore one of two years. The defendant received two years concurrent on each count at Stafford Crown Court.

Charles Hamer appealed the sentence on the basis that notwithstanding that the man would have received a much longer term if the offences had occurred more recently, the learned Judge was nonetheless not entitled to ignore his guilty pleas, and therefore the sentence was wrong in principle. The Court of Appeal agreed and also accepted the submission that it is well-settled sentencing practice that offences of the same type committed against the same victim should attract concurrent rather than consecutive terms. Accordingly, the Court of Appeal halved the term imposed by the Judge to one year concurrent on each of the relevant counts.