I was going to continue with my "Media AVP" posts, but following the above story thought I would do a small posting regarding 'unduly lenient sentences' in the UK.
How many of you read the above story with a feeling of disgust - that someone who was found guilty of sex offences against young children could walk out of court a free man (albeit with a 12 month suspended sentence?)
What was the judge thinking? How can this be allowed? What a smack in the face for his victims who have had to a) live with this all these past years and b) have had to live through the ordeal of a full trial due to him pleading not guilty?
A lot of people judging by the comments on twitter and other sites.
How many of you realise that there is a way that you can appeal against sentences that are 'unduly lenient' like this one certainly is?
Anyone can appeal against a sentence that you consider Unduly Lenient!
As long as the sentencing is in the previous twenty-eight days, was passed in a Crown Court, and is a crime contained in the link I will include at the bottom of this posting - anyone can appeal to the AGs office against the sentence.
If you do appeal, all you need to do is make sure your e-mail is short, sharp and to the point (bullet-pointed is helpful). I personally find it beneficial to include the offenders name, date of sentence and court the trial and sentence was passed in the subject field. There are probably numerous sites you can refer to regarding sentencing policies and what conditions have not been met which have made it (in your view) 'unduly lenient', but the one I use is What Sentences Are For.
This link Unduly Lenient Sentences gives further details on how the process works. For England and Wales, the e-mail address to send them to is correspondenceunit@attorneygeneral.gsi.gov.uk and for Scotland, the e-mail address is correspondenceunit@scotland.gsi.gov.uk.
A lot of the time, sentences will not be reviewed, but there are times they will be, as below.
Thank you for your email below about the sentence given to Graham Ovenden.
This Office has asked for further details of the cases from the Crown Prosecution Service so that the Law Officers can decide whether or not to refer the sentences to the Court of Appeal as being unduly lenient.
Yours sincerely
Correspondence Unit
So next time, instead of joining the twitter/facebook army of moaners, do something constructive about it.
You never know, yours could be the one appeal that gets a sentence increased to what it should be..............
