Sentencing Remarks of Mrs Justice May: R v Stephen Nicholson

JurisdictionEngland & Wales
Judgment Date19 July 2019
Docket NumberT20187146
Subject MatterSentencing Remarks
CourtCrown Court
1
IN THE CROWN COURT AT BRISTOL T20187146
The Hon. Mrs Justice May DBE
REGINA
-v-
STEPHEN NICHOLSON
SENTENCING REMARKS
On 25 July 2018 Lucy McHugh was brutally murdered. She was 13 years old. Her
body was found in woodland at Southampton Sports Centre by a man walking his dog
early the next morning. She had been stabbed in the neck and elsewhere as she lay on
the ground.
The defendant, Stephen Nicholson, has been convicted of murder, together with 3
counts of rape and 1 count of sexual activity with a child. The 3 counts of rape concern
three occasions of penetrative sex with Lucy, oral and vaginal, when she was aged 12.
The jury found Nicholson not guilty of count 5 charging multiple occasions of vaginal
penetration with Lucy after her 13th birthday. Earlier in the trial, on a defence
application which was unopposed by the prosecution I directed the jury to return a not
guilty verdict on count 6 charging multiple occasions of oral penetration with Lucy
after her 13th birthday.
The jury further convicted Nicholson of count 7 being an offence of sexual activity with
a child, involving a separate complainant to whom I shall refer as AB. Under the
provisions of the Sexual Offences Amendment Act 1992 no details may be published
about a person during their lifetime which may identify them as having been the victim
of a sexual offence, hence the use of initials.

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