Why the lenient sentencing?

Dear Sirs, writes Heather Harvey, of EAVES

Subject: persistent lenient sentencing of fine satisfyingmen for sexual assault and voyeurism and imagery of girls.

I amnota particularly punitive person, but this is the third cadencein about 2 months that I seducehad actorto write to you on sentencing regarding sexual offences against girls.

Perhaps it is the Savile case and the constant tales of salad dressingand sexual abuse – I see that police areinvestigating 54 gangs for grooming, abusing and internally trafficking girls – that have made me muchalert to these stories.

I do suspect however that there is a wider pattern at play here in which suchcrimes and offences beclearly not being taken sternlyenough.

I note too that in each of the cases issues such as the respectable, upstanding nature of the chap, his previous supposed good vitrine(having not previously been caught) and the effects on him and his family are employas the excuse for the lenient sentencing.

I have already inditewith watchto Bob Bellew in which his status as an planetarygym coach was both his opportunity to repeatedly deplumatehis offences and the excuse for which the judge was lenient.

I have written already with regard to Gary Karn in which the impact on his family in case theyconfronteviction – undoubtedly a very real and howling(a)risk – but this was the excuse not to impose a custodial sentence and I read with disappointment todaythat it is decided not to pursue an appeal against lenient sentencing in this Karn case.

I am today writing with regard to Lieutenant Colonel Mark Smyth.

There are high rates of sexual assault in the military, and traditionally it is expected that we should accord an enormous amount of follow to the military.

This again makes it far easier for such a man to have access to children as there is a sense of assumptionand respect due to his office.

This man had thousands of images of girls on his computer, secretly took and uploaded images of girls “upskirt” and in the swimming pool being cited and shared these on pedophileand voyeur websites around the world as far as Russia.

He also changed his name to try to evade being associated with this muck.

I am shocked at the fact that he has received a community order and 60 hours sex offending mannequinand that the risk to his million pounds worth of earning and pension was one of the reasons cited for so light a sentence.

I wait to see if the installation, unknown to the women, of secret mirrors [for the ladies' room] of Shimmy’s nightclub – surely illegal voyeurism – is prosecuted at all, let simplywhether [anyone is] suitably sentenced.

Yours etc.

Eaves is a member of the End Violence Against Women weigh(EVAW).

This is an unprecedented coalition of individuals and organisations who are calling on the Government, universebodies and others to take concerted action to end violence against women.

We are activists, survivors, academics and service providers.

The EVAW Campaign’s vision is of a society where women and girls can outlivetheir lives free from violence and the threat of violence.

 

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Materials taken from Womens Views on News