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This is a short addendum ruling correcting an error in sentencing within the main judgment reported at [2024] NICC 30 . Determinate custodial sentences were replaced with extended custodial sentences where necessary
[2024] NICC 36 O'Hara J
Crown Court sentencing remarks – catfishing – sextortion - manslaughter - causing or inciting girls under 13 and between the age of 13 and 16 to engage in sexual activity – blackmail – making, distributing and possessing indecent images of children – causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent - intimidation - sexual communication with a child - offending against 70 victims worldwide – harm inevitably and indisputably huge – assessed as presenting a significant risk of serious harm – victim did not prove on the balance of probabilities that he was the victim of catfishing as a child – no previous record – pleas of guilty – some limited evidence of remorse post 2019 – numerous aggravating factors outlined at para [77] - extensive and worsening offending after his first arrest in 2016 – life sentence imposed – 20 year minimum tariff imposed with concurrent sentences in respect of the remaining counts – 10 year SOPO – disqualified from working with children – disposal order in respect of 13 devices
[2024] NICC 30 O'Hara J
The Court of Appeal provides assistance in relation to online blackmail and sextortion (see in particular paragraphs [66] and [111]-[114])
Renewed application for leave to appeal an extended custodial sentence of six years imprisonment and four years extended licence – various sexual offences - indecent images - disclosure of private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress - online blackmail – sextortion - whether the starting point of nine years and the four year extension period were manifestly excessive – whether the SOPO was necessary and contrary to principle – right form of sentence attached to the wrong offences – overall sentence affirmed – leave to appeal granted – sentence restructured - appeal allowed to the extent of setting aside the invalid orders and substituting the sentences outlined in paragraph [116].
The Crown Court judgment can be located at [2023] NICC 15
In this judgment the Court of Appeal adopts the sentencing guidelines on indecent images issued by the English Court of Appeal in R v Oliver & Others [2002] EWCA Crim 2766.
AG’s Reference – 30 counts of making an indecent image of a child – sentenced to three years’ probation on each count to run concurrently with a condition to participate in a sex offenders programme – offending commenced when defendant was 15 - special circumstances advanced before the court that the defendant was corrupted as a child and his offending was the product of that corruption – court held rehabilitative sentence justified in this case – sentence not unduly lenient – appeal dismissed.
(The Court of Appeal in King v Andrew Maxwell [2023] NICA 21 has reaffirmed both these cases as the settled sentencing authorities in the area of indecent images of children.)
Thirty month imprisonment for offence of burglary - elderly victim - suspended sentence - exceptional mitigating circumstances - whether unduly lenient.
[1993] 5 NIJB 71 Hutton LCJ