Sexual Concerns
| Published date | 01 September 2021 |
| Date | 01 September 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/02645505211020523b |
| Subject Matter | In court |
confirmed diagnosis of emotional unstable personality disorder, exacerbated by
substance misuse.
The judge determined that appropriate punishment could be achieved only by
the imposition of an immediate custodial sentence though, taking account of the
Covid-19 pandemic (applying the Manning principle) and plea, setting that as one
of 15 months.
On B.’s appeal, it was argued that the term should have been suspended. The
Court of Appeal was unpersuaded, on the basis that:
This was a very serious offence that might have attracted a significantly longer
term of imprisonment. ‘Threats of violence against public servants doing their
duty, particularly involving the use of a firearm, are rightly regarded with
revulsion.’ The social workers ‘deserve the full protection of the law’.
This episode had plainly had a deeply traumatic effect on the principal victim
and an adverse effect on the provision of Social Services generally in that
local authority.
The fact that this victim had stayed in the house, continuing with her duties
until the police arrived, was a measure of her courage and resilience, not a
mitigating factor in B.’s favour.
Her counsel’s assertion that she posed a low risk of re-offending was contrary
to the PSR assessment that had made the point that that B.’s ongoing drug
taking made that risk ‘significantly higher’.
B. had never before been sentenced to imprisonment. She had had numerous
chances to co-operate with probation and to comply with the various com-
munity orders which have been made in her case. The fact that she had failed
to do so – and was in breach of a conditional discharge at the time of the
current offence – ‘undercuts any suggestion that this was a case with “a
realistic prospect of rehabilitation” ...On the contrary, it might be said that
by this offending [she] had finally crossed the line’.
Any mitigation sought to be derived on account of B.’s mental health needed
to be weighed in the light of her drug misuse, ‘the principal exacerbating
factor underlying her mental health issues’.
The pandemic health crisis had not been a material factor in B.’s crime. As her
sentence had been shortened to reflect that consideration, she could not rely
on it again to argue for suspension.
Appeal dismissed.
R v BRASS, [2021] 1 Cr App R(S) 46.
Sexual Concerns
Entrenched pursuit of child pornography: ‘Serious harm’ test
In 2009 when aged in his mid-40s W. had incurred a 5 year sentence (on appeal
from an initial IPP – imprisonment for public protection), imposed for possessing and
383
In court
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