Nazir Ahmed, David Stansfield, and Peter Hodgkinson, convicted of sexual assaults during their adolescence in Yorkshire, have had their jail sentences lowered following the submission of appeals.
The Court of Appeal justices determined that the penalties given to Nazir Ahmed, David Stansfield, and Peter Hodgkinson in three trials were “incorrect in principle and evidently excessive.”
The verdict states that the judges who incarcerated Nazir Ahmed, David Stansfield, and Peter Hodgkinson should have adhered to the legislation and sentencing guidelines applicable at the time the acts were committed.
It stated: “Imposing a custodial sentence on an adult defendant would be inappropriate if, at the time of the offence, he could not have received any custodial sentence due to his youth.”
Nazir Ahmed, 65, received a term of five and a half years’ jail at Sheffield Crown Court last year, following his conviction for buggery and attempted rape.
He perpetrated the offences against two minors in the early 1970s, from the ages of 14 to 17.
The Court of Appeal judges stated that had he been punished for buggery at the age of 14, with no prior convictions, it is pretty sure he would have got a mere six-month term.
His whole sentence was decreased to two and a half years.
David Stansfield, 61, was found guilty of seven charges, including rape and child indecency, at Sheffield Crown Court last year and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
David Stansfield, who sexually assaulted three minors, perpetrated most of the acts during his adolescence in the 1970s, although he also raped one of the victims at the age of 21.
The Court of Appeal determined that the judge failed to assign “sufficient weight” to the defendant’s status as a teenage boy at the time of committing the majority of the charges during sentencing.
It is deemed improbable that he would have received a lengthy prison sentence had he been convicted at the time of the sexual abuse.
The judge was found to have committed two more errors during sentencing, as violent acts were “counted twice in the overall evaluation of culpability and harm,” and he erroneously asserted that there was an abuse of trust.
His sentence was decreased to 11 years, with one year on parole.
Peter Hodgkinson, 66, was sentenced to six years in prison at Sheffield Crown Court in May of the previous year, after admitting to multiple counts of indecent assault.
He victimised two girls in the 1970s, during the period when he was aged 16 to 21.
The Court of Appeal judges asserted that “immediate custodial sentences of considerable duration were warranted” due to Peter Hodgkinson perpetrating some acts as “a young adult rather than a minor.”
However, they also determined that his prison sentence was “excessive,” as it was “substantially greater than the duration that would have been permissible” when he committed those charges.
His total sentence was decreased to four years, accompanied by an extended licence period of two years.
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