AIBU to question this judge's decision? (*warning - extremely distressing*)

[UpstartCrow]

A judge has reduced the prison sentence for a nurse who was found guilty on 10 separate serious offences against very young children.

George Robert Anderson, 28, worked at Torbay Hospital as a psychiatric nurse, was jailed for 19 years four months last year.
His lawyers today argued that his crimes took place over just a few minutes and that no lasting physical harm was done to the girl.
Judge Wendy Joseph QC reduced his sentence by 2 years.

The link contains distressing details.
www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/nurse-who-filmed-himself-raping-1141202.amp?__twitter_impression=true

Should his sentence have been reduced?
What do we have to do to get men to stop?

Medical reports said there was no lasting physical harm? Based on what, that vaginas self heal?
What about other types of harm such as emotional and psychological?

I can say it Bash it is my opinion.

For all we know, he didn't succeed in anything more than nominal penetration. It's utterly pointless to assume we must know better than three judges who have seen the reports.

Cassandra, you made a factual statement that it wasn't possible, not a statement of opinion.

No we don’t, but that’s true of any newspaper article quoted on here.

There are people who think child abuse isnt so bad, as long as the child is very young or there's no lasting physical harm done. Just as there are men who think date rape drugs make rape acceptable because the victim wont have any distressing memories.

How do we change this?

If not physical harm she will suffer emotional harm. She’s far too little yet for anyone to say she won’t.

We have countless threads in here with sufferers having flash backs in middle age and after having children of sexual abuse from years back.

Anyone who excuses this sentence and doesn’t think the law should be changed is beyond me.

It’s also pointless to assume that judges are infallible and never make inappropriate remarks particularly wrt sex offences.

It’s not uncommon.

grannytomine answered for me. I live in Plymouth and met Vanessa George through a friend.

My reply saying that life without parole or the death penalty shows that I'm not making light of the case or trying to derail it. I agree with Upstart completely.

I still think it's worth making the point that there is a difference between stopping pedophiles and stopping men. Not a NAMALT one but that it means people are overly trusting of women when they're told that 'men are bad, m'kay'.

Stopping these crimes can't be done. As I said, support those whose job it is to look for signs of abuse is the best we can (sadly) do.

I'm a woman, for what it's worth but the accusation that I must "have a penis" says more about the accuser than anything else. It shows bias and bias leads to blindness.

blindness = blinkeredness

Point taken Bash but I am struggling to accept that no lasting physical harm was done.

It's disgusting. Why does he ever need to get out? At least if he's kept in prison until the day he dies we know that this piece of shit won't be hurting any other child.
Sentencing guidelines need a major overhaul.

Like Chaz, I don't assume that judges are infallible, but I would rather wait for the full decision than reach conclusions on the basis of one short newpaper report.

The laws need to be changed

Wtf?!

The child wasn't suffering long term harm?

Does it really matter!! He raped a 3 year old,

Shame on the lawyers for arguing that and shame on the judge for listening

A reduction in sentence doesn't mean that the judges think that the sentence was too harsh in moral terms, it's about whether the guidelines were applied properly and it's in line with other sentences given for similar offences.

Judge is a loon.not fit for purpose

Well yes, YABU.

Unless you have seen all the evidence in the case and the sentencing guidance and reached an informed conclusion.

We have a justice system in this country, we don't run by internet furore and lynch mob.

Every single person who was involved in this appeal should hang their heads in shame. Utterly ridiculous to reduce this sentence, if anything it should have been longer. He recorded himself and watched it back for God’s sake! I despair

Chugalug, it's three senior judges. Are they all loons?

jurassic the fact that occasionally women do commit child abuse (and even when they do there is almost always a man involved somewhere, as was the case with Vanessa George, although of course that does not excuse or remove any responsibility from her, it's just an observation) does not take away from the fact that sexual violence against women and children is overwhelmingly a male perpetrated crime. And there are many, many roots to it, which is what people who talk about 'how we can stop men doing this' want to find and solve. And these root causes are often different from the root causes of why women commit these sorts of crimes.

This is just fact. Look at any statistic about the perpetrators of violence and sexual violence.

At my school we regularly have to undergo safeguarding training and watch some fairly harrowing things. One statistic that stuck in my head was that the level of recidivism is so high because of the poor support offenders receive within their communities. But how on earth can communities support someone who felt that raping a 3 year old was acceptable in any way? How can anyone who consciously chooses those actions ever really be rehabilitated?

I'm not a fan of life sentences and understand that many people act out of character for so many reasons and make poor choices which lead to custodial sentences. But raping a child is never to be confused with shoplifting or burgling a home; it's an invasion of the very worst kind imaginable and I don't truly believe that a child rapist could ever be truly rehabilitated because they must be unutterably fucked in their heads to perform the act in the first place.

There's no coming back from acts like that. He belongs in jail for the rest of his godawful life.

We have a justice system in this country, we don't run by internet furore and lynch mob.

Our justice system gets things wrong at times. It's absolutely not infallible. And in this specific instance the justice system has let itself down immeasurably. It's perfectly fine for people to question our justice system.

If the poor child hasn’t suffered long term harm, that’s luck and nothing to do with that vile specimen

That may be true but it is a factor the courts are required to take into consideration when sentencing for these offences. The sentence is higher if the child suffers long term harm.

Absolutkry ludicrous he should have a life sentence

That would definitely have been overturned. Judges are required to stick to the sentencing guidelines. None of the offences he committed carry a life sentence.

Oh he was disinherited because of drug use. Well that excuses it

No it doesn't. It makes no difference to sentencing.

And this is a woman judge

Three woman judges.

Whether we like it or not, judges have to comply with the sentencing guidelines. Given that all the offences took place during a single incident I am not overly surprised that the sentence was reduced. I am not saying I agree with the guidelines but 17 years is about what I would have expected based on the guidelines as they stand. He will, of course, be on the sex offenders register for life and banned from jobs working with children and vulnerable adults.

If you think the sentence is too low, don't criticise the judges. Campaign to get the sentencing guidelines changed.

prh47bridge the offence of rape does carry a life sentence, it is, however, very rarely applied.