Men of "good character" and protein shakes that lead to a sexual offencet

[Wormulonian]

Man who serially filmed women including a girl getting changed at swimming pools and was found to have masses of serious porn (involving animals and women) on his computer and 3 previous convictions for theft is spared jail as the judge says "he has a family" and is "of previous good character"!
www.theargus.co.uk/news/local/15608273.Father_preyed_on_women_getting_undressed_and_filming_them_in_pool_s_changing_rooms_spared_jail/

What does a guy have to do to be considered "not of good character" and jailed? Also, who did he share his horrid films with? and should he be allowed around his "family"

Discovered today that drinking protein shakes and necking a bit of testosterone makes a guy woozy and so confused that he is compelled to totally strip off and wander from the gym to the ladies changing room and touch a woman's bottom. Who knew? - damn those protein shakes - and the judge bought it as an excuse for a sexual offence!???! (DM link - sorry)
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5008241/Gym-goer-touched-woman-s-bottom-ladies-changing-room.html

Having a family makes it worse not better surely? Especially as he filmed a girl getting changed. Having 3 previous convictions and then being considered of good character is bizarre. I'd love to know if anyone here who has any knowledge of the sentencing process can explain that one.

Ach it's alright, she was awarded £750 - that's nearly a Mulberry handbag. Good reward for sexual assault, eh?

Need to warn DH off those shakes

There is no bloody testosterone in protein shakes!!!

How on earth is he of good character?

He is lucky the boyfriend of the victim didn't hit him (I'm so annoyed by this I would excuse violence if he had) And if the boyfriend had hit him the boyfriend would probably get a stiffer sentence.

I'd have thought his children would be infinitely better off without him in their lives. Anyone who films young girls in this way must be considered to be a threat to children.

Both cases are abhorrent, not least the man in the first link filming women and young girls getting changed. In my opinion, simply videoing a young girl getting changed should warrant a harsher sentence than that (and a woman of course, I think both are hugely disturbing but there's an added element when it's a girl).

I'd say it'd be worth asking for the sentence from the former link to be reviewed but I'm not sure if the offence against the girl would count as one of the crimes which can be reviewed (I don't think it would). Generally though it might be worth bearing in mind anyone can ask for sentences imposed for certain crimes at a Crown Court to be reviewed if they seem too lenient (www.gov.uk/ask-crown-court-sentence-review). I've never done it but should start, especially with some sentences handed down for rape which I feel are woefully inadequate.

I’m speechless!

The only offence protein shakes lead to is excessive flatulence.

‘Good character’ = not been caught before.

If they're drinking protein shakes, I'll bet they're abusing steroids. But choosing to abuse steroids is not a mitigating factor. If anything, it should be considered an aggravating factor.

DH drinks protein shakes. He wouldn’t touch steroid with a barge pole. Bit of a generalisation there.

I drink protein shakes and don't use steroids. That's an utterly stupid thing to say.

In the first case the sex offender programme will do him and any possibile future victims a lot more good than a prison sentence.

But good character my arse.

Just heading to the kitchen to bin all my protein shakes in case I wander through the gym later and grab a bloke by the goolies to steady myself.

Stupid comment about steroids btw.

I wonder why the Daily Mail are reporting these. This must happen all the damn time.

Are they building up a head of steam about self identification?

NoLoveofMine I didn't know that anyone would complain about a sentence. Thanks for that. Due to illness and a drop off in work I've had more time of late to read the papers online and everyday there seem to be several awful reports about DV cases and sexual assaults. I'm sure it is just the tip of the iceberg and it is so depressing. The fact that the cases even make it to court is such an uphill struggle and then the victims are brave enough to testify and for what??? it must be soul destroying.
Time to get active.

I completely agree Wormulonian. I regularly read about these horrific cases and those are just the ones which make any news (usually it's minor local news at best), it really is an epidemic in my opinion. It's so difficult for these cases to get to court, takes so long and the victims will already have been through so much up to that point, often having to relive it all in court after all that and as you say, so often the sentences seem so inadequate. I haven't yet complained about a sentence but must start doing so as it's a way of perhaps making some difference - there have been cases where sentences have been increased after complaints from members of the public.

This should be a clickable link: www.gov.uk/ask-crown-court-sentence-review

First guy clearly a nasty piece of work, and the second highly dodgy. So, this is just a side-issue, but:

In the second case, the only indication of what the judge thought is the quote that 'it sounded far-fetched'. In any case, it wasn't a successful defence as he was found guilty.

Very clearly, the judge did not buy it as an excuse. So why are we saying that it was accepted as such? For anyone not wanting to click the DM link, they'd fully expect that the guy was found not guilty from the OP and the comments that follow.

Here's a non DM article about the gym guy

metro.co.uk/2017/10/23/man-claims-he-groped-woman-in-gym-changing-room-because-of-his-protein-shakes-7020846/

It doesn't go into any detail about the sentencing and whether the judge took his excuses into account when sentencing or not.

Interestingly, the Metro article mentions he was also taking testosterone. Testosterone is, of course, a steroid hormone. Not quite such a stupid comment after all...

The DM article mentions testosterone too, so...

I'm afraid saying anyone that drinks protein shakes is also likely to be abusing steroids is not a sensible comment.

No. But we're not talking about everyone who's drinking protein shakes. We're talking about a man allegedly committing sexual assault, who is trying to justify it based on drinking protein shakes. And I maintain that anyone in that group would almost certainly be taking steroids.