Judge 'wrong' to spare rapists jail, court told

During the Appeal Court hearing, Tom Little KC said: "We accept… that the judge did try to apply the relevant principles, but our submission is he misapplied them along the way, the cumulative effect of which was to lead to unduly lenient sentences." He also said that that the judge's sentencing remarks made "limited reference to the marked impact of this offending on both victims and the clear evidence of extensive harm suffered as a result". Ed Henry KC, representing Y, said the boy had been made a "pariah" as a result of the public being misled by reporting of the case because of an inaccurate press release from the Crown Prosecution Service. "Y behaved deplorably and disgracefully and he of course deserves to be punished," Henry said. "But the public outcry, the opprobrium..has gravely exacerbated his punishment." Henry said: "Parliament has decided that when sentencing children an entirely different approach is required." He said his client was in the bottom one percent of IQs for his age. "He has a very, very simplistic understanding of the word consent." On behalf of boy X, Clare Wade KC said "We submit that the learned judge approached the sentencing exercise correctly. …