Pupil, Naomi Duckworth, instructed by Carl Gallagher at Robert Lizar secures a community order for a Defendant convicted of three offences of possessing indecent images of children of Category A, B, and C. The Defendant had been charged with possession of 20,000 images to which he entered guilty pleas at the earliest opportunity.
Following a thorough review of the expert forensic report in this case, Naomi advanced that on the application of the Sentencing Council’s offence specific guideline, the Court should find that the correct category for culpability was the lower one. It was submitted that, notwithstanding the discovery of moving Category A images, this was the scenario envisioned within the guideline where a downward adjustment was justified from Category A to C, as the higher category was not representative of the Defendant’s overall offending behaviour.
Applying the Sentencing Council’s guideline on Sentencing Offenders with Mental Conditions and Neurological Impairments, she successfully submitted that the Defendant’s culpability was further reduced on account of his diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, and that the imposition of custody would be disproportionate in this case on account of the symptoms of his condition.
The Judge hearing the case, noting the “commendably clear” defence submissions, found that, unusually, this offending had not in this case crossed the custody threshold. As such, he could therefore properly find that the appropriate sentence for this Defendant was one in the community where he would receive maximum intervention.
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