Sentencing Children for Sexual Offending: A Prequel Case Study
| Author | Nigel Stone |
| Published date | 01 December 2017 |
| Date | 01 December 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1473225417744874 |
| Subject Matter | Legal Commentary |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1473225417744874
Youth Justice
2017, Vol. 17(3) 268 –276
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1473225417744874
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Sentencing Children for Sexual
Offending: A Prequel Case Study
Nigel Stone
The most recent Commentary (Stone, 2017) reviewed the Sentencing Council’s (SC,
2017) Sentencing Children and Young People: Definitive Guideline and future
Commentaries will be alert to the application of that guidance and any discernible impact
on the ethos of youth justice in England and Wales. In the meantime, a recent Court of
Appeal judgement, in R v. W. (Attorney General’s Reference) (2016) EWCA Crim 2115;
(2017) 1 Cr. App. R. (S.) 37, decided while the new Guideline was still in draft form (SC,
2016), provides an opportunity to consider how the guidance may be applied, both in
respect of generic principle and approach in Part 1 and more particularly the Sexual
Offences Guideline (SOG) in Part 2.1
R v. W .: The Sexual Offending
On a single occasion, the date being unresolved but said to have been between June 2014
and January 2015, though apparently during the summer of 2014, when W. (born in
September 2002) was either 11 or 12, he had invited three younger boys who lived nearby,
aged around 6–8, out to play. Having led them away from their usual play area on an appar-
ent pretext W. had exposed himself and begun masturbating before taking down the lower
clothing of the youngest boy, bending him over and inserting his penis into his anus. When
the boy attempted to run away, he was pulled back by his collar. He had cried because the
penetration hurt. When the second boy, though scared, refused to pull down his pants W.
had done so before placing his penis in that boy’s anus. The oldest boy successfully resisted
W.’s efforts to subject him to the same experience, striking W. with a toy sword. Although
W. had told the boys that they could not tell anybody what had occurred, in May 2015 the
oldest told one of his sisters what had happened, being overheard by his mother who real-
ised that some incident had occurred ‘the previous summer’. When interviewed by the
police W. gave ‘no comment’ answers. He subsequently pleaded not guilty to two offences
of rape of a child under the age of 13 and one of attempted rape of a child under 13.2
Corresponding author:
Nigel Stone, School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Elizabeth Fry Building, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK.
Email: n.stone@uea.ac.uk
744874YJJ0010.1177/1473225417744874Youth JusticeStone
research-article2017
Legal Commentary
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