Court of Appeal reduces sentence for making indecent images of children | Appeal highlights the importance of the courts properly interrogating the basis upon which a defendant is to be sentenced

Sean appeared before the Court of Appeal to appeal a sentence imposed at Stafford Crown Court for three counts of making indecent images of children. 

The original sentence of 10 months in a Young Offender Institution (YOI) suspended for 20 months was substituted for 6 months YOI suspended for 12 months.  A 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) was quashed in its entirety. 

The Court agreed that the sentencing judge had been wrong to aggravate sentence based on the number of images and period over which they were possessed: 75 images (23 of category A) was not a high volume of images, and 6.5 months was a limited period of time for them to have been in the appellant’s possession. 

The Crown sought to rely on a forensic report as evidence that the images had been accessed multiple times, but the Court found there to be no clear or compelling evidence to rebut the appellant’s account that he was sent a link to the images, was disgusted by them, and had been stupid to save them.  On that basis, the Court agreed that it was not necessary to protect the public by the making of a SHPO. 

Sean Summerfield was nominated and assigned by the Registrar of Criminal Appeals.