A quick update on my post from a couple of days ago.
Following the above article published yesterday, the below has been sent, with the question asked if the Justice Secretary Chris Grayling and Police Minister Damian Green would be happy for me to publish their responses here.
awaiting their replies with interest ...
"Dear Mr Grayling, Mr Green,
I read with interest the article in the subject of this e-mail, regarding "Tough justice for those who watch child porn" (not my choice of words, these images or videos are images of children being abused and exploited by paedophiles, not pornography, but that's another issue that I continually take up with the media).
As you can see by the below, I have been trying to find out why some offences are able to be appealed against under the "Unduly Lenient Sentences" scheme, whilst others are not.
I received a reply from the Sentencing Policy and Penalties Unit this week, with the gist of their e-mail reply being it all depends on the classification of offences. It seems that only sentences that are considered "indictable only" can be considered under the ULS scheme, and as the crime of making/downloading of Indecent Images of Children is not an "Indictable Only" crime, this is why it cannot be considered when appealed against.
I have blogged a little on this, the link is here http://jerseyric.blogspot.com/2013/09/indecent-images-of-children-unduly.html, please feel free to read this, I have included in there a small part of the e-mail I received.
My question to both of you, is if the British Justice system is to get tougher on crimes, this one in particular, why is it not considered "indictable only"? I would have thought that all paedophile crimes or crimes against children would automatically be classified as this, not as a "Summary" or "Either Way" offence. As more people become aware of the ULS scheme, surely having this crime included as Indictable Only, and letting the public be able to appeal under the ULS scheme if sentences are too light, would eventually affect the sentences that are passed down going forward if enough people complained?
Thank you & look forward to your reply.
Richard Bougeard"
You make a really good arguement here- well done. Keep up this good work and good luck- I will be interested to read the reply too.
ReplyDeleteOn Jerseys "historic" and not so historic child protection faliures
ReplyDeleteThis bears repeating; from the 2nd page of comments (#215) at
http://stuartsyvret.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-crown-and-newspeak-justice-part-1.html?commentPage=2
2 October 2013 15:02
"A civilised Jersey conservative" said...
Mr Syvret, the magnitude of what you have done may well be lost on most of your readers. It isn't lost on the legal profession nor intelligent observers further afield. You have, as you correctly observed, 'faced down' the Jersey courts. People never, and I mean 'never', 'face down' a court. At least, not if the society is respectable and the person not a tyrant with an army at his back. Or, of course, in the case of an ordinary person like yourself, no court confident of its respectability would be 'faced down'. Our society is not respectable. And alas our courts even less so. As some 'higher external power' has finally had the good sense to recognise, it would seem. There can be no other explanation for you not being in prison. I am, incidentally, glad that you are not, and relieved, and deeply saddened at the same time. I've savoured a certain schadenfreude when discussing the situation with other lawyers & saying 'I told you so' when reminding them of the innumerable times I said 'no good would ever come of the folly of the actions against you, and it could only end in lasting damage to the island'. So it has come to pass. It saddens me that so many colleagues have been too fearful & foolish to have moved to stop this madness (and that is not an inappropriate word)when our Crown Officers embarked on the lunacy several years ago.
........
Thank you for the link anon, for anyone not familiar with Stuart's blog, the link is here Stuart Syvret Blogspot - if anyone who reads my blog would like an in depth look into the Jersey Child Abuse farce, this is an excellent starter and well worth a read through the posts.
DeleteAlong with this are the equally as excellent VoiceforChildren and Rico Sorda Blog