R v H (Sexual offence: Sentence)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 13 October 1994 |
| Date | 13 October 1994 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) |
Court of Appeal
Criminal sentencing - sex offences - anomaly
Many people would consider it strange that indecent assault should carry five times the maximum sentence than that of unlawful sexual intercourse.
Lord Taylor of Gosforth, Lord Chief Justice, so stated on October 10, when, sitting with Mr Justice Potts and Mr Justice Sachs on October 10, the Court of Appeal allowed a sentence appeal by H, a man aged 49, by reducing a three-year prison sentence to two years.
Schedule 2 to the Sexual Offences Act 1956 provided a maximum punishment for an offence of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16, contrary to section 6 of the Act, of two years.
By section 3(3) of the Sexual Offences Act 1985, the sentence for an offence of indecent assault under section 14 of the 1956 Act was increased to 10 years, but no alteration was made to the maximum for a section 6 offence.
THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE said that there might well be many cases of unlawful sexual intercourse, particularly where an offender was a very young man that a sentence of two years might have seemed appropriate but there were other cases, and the present was one, where unlawful sexual intercourse was coupled with a breach of trust, or there might be other aggravating features.
It might be appropriate that...
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