MA [2019] EWCA Crim 1520

The Solicitor General sought leave to refer to the court a sentence considered to be unduly lenient.

The offender stood trial with her husband, who was convicted of 10 counts of sexual crimes committed against the offender’s daughter. The offender was convicted of a single count of child cruelty. The prosecution case was that she had allowed her husband to sexually abuse her daughter over 4 years when it had been within her power to prevent the crimes. She was sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment.

The offending began when the complainant was 10 years old; she became pregnant on two occasions and had terminations. She told her mother about the offences and was ignored, even though her mother was aware of the pregnancies.

The Solicitor General submitted that this was category 1 harm, but also, given the period of the neglect and the deliberate disregard for her daughter’s welfare and safety, this was high culpability category A offending. The offence was aggravated by the offender’s attempt to blame others for the pregnancies, a deliberate cover-up of the offence and repeated failures to heed the complainant’s warnings as to the danger she was in.

Held: the culpability fell somewhere between category A & B. The offender failed to protect her daughter from repeatedly being raped from the age of 12 to 15. She acted as though nothing was happening and sacrificed her daughter to her marriage. Her expressions of regret were primarily those of self-pity. Although the complainant said the offender was sometimes a good mother that was of little relevance given the nature of the crime. The sentence was quashed and replaced with a sentence of 5 years imprisonment.