KB [2019] EWCA Crim 1031

The offender was sentenced to a total of 5 years’ imprisonment for two counts of sexual activity with a child and three counts of sexual activity with a child family member (one of which was expressly charged as a multiple incident count involving at least five occasions). The offending related to sexual misconduct towards the offender’s stepdaughter, S. She was to say that she had sex with the offender on over a hundred occasions, that she felt obliged to have sex with him and felt sexualised, the conduct starting when she was 13 or 14. The offender was arrested in 2014 and made no comment, due to no fault on his part charges were not brought until 2017 and the effective trial did not take place until early 2019.

At trial the offender denied any sexual contact until S was 16 and that thereafter there was a consensual sexual relationship. He said that he was not to be regarded as her stepfather so there was no family relationship, the jury obviously rejected that argument.

The victim described how she became dependent on alcohol as the offender had given her considerable quantities and her experiences affected subsequent relationships, she referred to mental health problems and placed considerable emphasis on what the offender had done to her.

On behalf of the Solicitor General it was said that the sentence was unduly lenient drawing attention to the multiple incidents, lengthy period of offending, the use of alcohol to facilitate offending, gifts were given in exchange for sex, significant discrepancy in age, no contraception was used and the inevitable impact on S. On behalf of the offender there was his previous good character, the delay, and the fact he had not appreciated that what he was doing after S reached 16 was illegal.

Held: this was an unduly lenient sentence by reference to the guidelines and the number of incidents, and there was no reason not to interfere. The sentence of 5 years was quashed and substituted with one of 7 years and 6 months.