What punishment do you think the British legal system would deem appropriate for someone who rapes a 5 year old?

[Mintyy]

I'm not going to link because I saw this in the Daily Mail. But, really, am truly horrified.

Life

Am guessing he would get an IPP sentence with a tariff of about 8 yrs. But knowing nothing else of the case. Lots of things will go into sentencing.

How can you possibly comment unless you were in the courtroom and heard the evidence?

Just read the article.

When is something going to be done about the availability of online pornography?

I would ban it.

so go on Mintyy.

Could someone give more info on the case?

I would say life but what is the background?

I think you can comment battleship because I just want to hear what people think is the sort of punishment given out in our courts for the rape of 5 year olds.

I would have guessed at a sentence of, I don't know, 20 years or something. I am so pig-ignorant.

bit disingenuous there Mintyy. His age is everything to do with sentencing.
yes Bonnie, I agree about the shit that is so easily available.

Ill stick my head over the parapet and say that I wish we had death row.for.cases like this

Yes, so a reduced sentence for a 14 year old.

Maybe 10 years? (this is what I am imagining in my head).

Is this the 14 yr old who raped the 5 yr old, and has not been given a custodial sentence because the judge said the 14 yr old had been corrupted by porn? The correct answer is no jail time.

I share your disgust OP.

Well the person who abused my (then) 5yo child for 4 years' got 15 months...although it wasn't rape. So....I suspect he won't get that long really. i suppose these are set sentences in Law?

I was sexually abused as a five year old. For me it has been a life sentence. Its nearly thirty years ago and my mental health is appalling.

For him, the idea of castration is inviting.

I know, its such an appalling crime. I find it so very hard to believe that it doesn't automatically carry a heavy duty custodial sentence.

a few years ago i recall there was a man who was given only about two years for raping a three month old baby. This was probably one of the first time that mumsnetters wielded there collective power and complained about the shortness of the sentence. I recall speaking to the lady at the complaints place and she said that they had had over two hundred complaints rather than the previous maimum of fifteen she had ever witnessed.

I think the trouble is all about recognition. English law comes from ancient roots and what was considered horrendous then, got more punishment. therefore you can get twenty years for defrauding a bank, but nothing for a crime like this. Of course i may be talking rubbish. But I think its shameful that this is all the perpetrator is going to get. Isnt there something about ten years of age being one of criminal responsibilty? ie, you know right from wrong at that age?

I think in cases like this where parents have not ensured their child's online safety and allowed them to be exposed to pornography, they should also be prosecuted for child abuse of their own DC. While my sympathy is reserved for the 5 year old girl and I think that a 14 year old would know absolutely what they are doing is wrong and so bears their own responsibility I do think this is a tragedy borne out of the accessibility of online pornography and any parent who does not actively prevent their DCs from being able to access it should be helps responsible for their DCs acting on it. As it is the 14 year old's mum can no longer be a childminder so in one way there has been indirect punishment of the parents but not enough in my view.

I wonder at the 2 1/2 year monitoring. I can understand the possible lack of custodial sentencing.

But i would have thought that he should be monitored until he is at least 21. The same applies to him veiwing porn, but really i would have thought that 25 would have been safer.

Link, not really sure why you would read the Daily Mail but then refuse to link to it:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2168134/Babysitting-teen-14-raped-girl-5-spared-custody-judge-says-corrupted-internet-porn.html

I think it is relevant to say that the offender is 14 years old.

Nothing to do with internet porn - horny teenager going over the line, knew it and got away with it - should have been life

14 knows right from wrong. I think the judge was fucking stupid and clearly a rape apologist. However, he has if anything put the teenager in danger as the situation now is just asking for some kind of vigilante justice. In the parent's situation I'd kill him, wouldn't think twice about out either.

I know the abuser was 14 but how awful for the child like thingamajig says it's a life sentence for her. I'm not a big fan of American style justice but I can't help but think I'd of done the same

The UK already locks up a higher percentage of children than almost any other country. What has happened in this case is distressing and appalling but what is also apparent is that there are now two badly damaged children that have been seriously let down by the rest of us. The victim, it goes without saying, but also the offender. How wrong does a child's life have to go that they become a rapist? Who is responsible?

The UK justice system doesn't really like to punish people for rape, so no punishment is exactly what i woudl expect.

"Judge Gareth Hawkesworth told him he would have received a six-and-a-half year jail term if he had been an adult."

If he had been a bit older it would have been 6.5 years (so out in 3) for the rape and sexual assault of a 5yo.

Our criminal justice system takes the fucking piss, it makes me so angry.

As an aside, I HATE HATE HATE the reduced sentence for 'good behaviour'. Prisons should not be able to facilitate anything BUT good behaviour.