Authors Damian Warburton
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1. Predictably, and I say this to no denigration of PC Young’s experience, your article is written to inflame. It could have appeared in DailyMail.
You seek only to outrage; not to inform. While I cannot hope to do so with @barristersecret’s finesse I will attempt to add balance.
2. The law requires the sentencing judge to adhere to the Sentencing Guidelines. This is an exercise in balancing a multitude of relevant factors.
Immediately, therefore, this means that your claim the offender escaped custody “thanks to glowing character references” is false.
3. The exercise begins, therefore, with the Guideline for the offence that has resulted in a conviction. If that offence is not serious enough for the facts then that is the fault of the CPS, not the judge, who cannot sentence more severely than for what is before him/her.
4. Offences have a max. sentence in law, and the Guidelines indicate a starting point, and range. While it is the law that judges must have regard to the Guidelines, they may go outside of the range (at either end) where circumstances so justify, but if they do they must say why.
5. PC Young’s attacker was convicted of ABH. For that offence, there are 9 stages to the sentencing process, beginning, as always, with determining the offence category which is a combination of offender culpability, and the harm caused.
You seek only to outrage; not to inform. While I cannot hope to do so with @barristersecret’s finesse I will attempt to add balance.
"Is it ok for me to be used as a punchbag?"
— Police Federation (@PFEW_HQ) December 5, 2020
PC David Young's faith in courts left shattered after a man who fractured his nose & cheekbone walked free with a suspended sentence. #ProtectTheProtectors
Full story \u2b07\ufe0fhttps://t.co/wT9IR6XS4v@NYPFJBB @pritipatel @RobertBuckland pic.twitter.com/tKCUexn0Mt
2. The law requires the sentencing judge to adhere to the Sentencing Guidelines. This is an exercise in balancing a multitude of relevant factors.
Immediately, therefore, this means that your claim the offender escaped custody “thanks to glowing character references” is false.
3. The exercise begins, therefore, with the Guideline for the offence that has resulted in a conviction. If that offence is not serious enough for the facts then that is the fault of the CPS, not the judge, who cannot sentence more severely than for what is before him/her.
4. Offences have a max. sentence in law, and the Guidelines indicate a starting point, and range. While it is the law that judges must have regard to the Guidelines, they may go outside of the range (at either end) where circumstances so justify, but if they do they must say why.
5. PC Young’s attacker was convicted of ABH. For that offence, there are 9 stages to the sentencing process, beginning, as always, with determining the offence category which is a combination of offender culpability, and the harm caused.