Indecent Images of Children and Extreme Images

 Nearly 100,000 indecent images were found on an ex-scout leader’s computer. Peter Murphy pleaded guilty to five charges of making and possessing indecent images at Peterborough Crown Court. Mr Murphy had more than 94,000 images of children from babies to teens and extreme images. He received a year imprisonment which was later reduced to 10 months by Judge Enright. He will normally serve half of this sentence. Miss Sarah Read appeared for the Defendant, instructed by our expert Andrew Parker of HSandCo.

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The Appeal of Voyeurism

HS&Co represent on many sexual cases each year. Please note the following Court of Appeal case: R v B (M) 20/04/ 2012. This was a case of alleged voyeurism whereby the defendant had been lying on his back on the floor of a swimming pool changing cubicle. In the next cubicle there were two mothers supervising their six-year-old sons changing into swimming trunks. The man apparently put his head in the cubicle gap whilst the boys were naked. He said that he did this because his back hurt. He faced two counts of voyeurism country to section 67(1) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. The crown court trial judge ruled that the defendant suffered from a learning disability and was not fit to plead or stand trial. Ergo, the judge said that the Crown only had to prove that the defendant had observed the relevant boy doing a private act and there was no sexual gratification requirement or that he’d done the act knowing that the victim did not consent to being observed for sexual gratification. The Court of Appeal judgement outlined all the elements involved in this offence and particularly that ‘observe’ meant a deliberate act of looking at someone doing something private, therefore not reckless of careless viewing of someone doing such an act. There also had to be the necessary sexual pleasure element. In a nutshell, HS&Co advise that there have to be two simultaneous actions in a voyeurism case: 1. Deliberate observation. 2. Specific intent to obtain sexual gratification, albeit this is subjective.

Criminals Court Out

Criminals could soon be avoiding court for offences such as minor assault, theft and fraud and escape prosecution. It has been named ‘the biggest shake-up of charging guidelines for 20 years.’ No further action will be taken by the prosecution if they do not believe it is “proportionate” to take them to court. Deciding whether to charge a defendant will depend on cost and the length of a likely trial also. Prosecutors will weigh such issues with the likely sentence the criminal would get. HS&Co / M23Law often make successful submissions to the Crown in order to keep cases away from the court proceedings stage. It is the second time in 3 years Keir Starmer QC has suggested to bring “common sense” to prosecutions. HS&Co stress how important it is to have our representation at the investigation stage, in order to hopefully avoid court proceedings. All our lawyers at HS&Co / M23Law have attended a lecture at Sussex University by Keir Starmer QC.

Sex Party Punch

An Old Bailey Jury took under an hour to convict male model Patrick Ribbsaeter of GBH on his girlfriend after they attended an upmarket sex party. Miss Sara-Pod had to flee her car with just a fur coat on after going to the Killing Kittens Soho swingers’ party in Central London. She was apparently caught by the defendant with another man in a toilet cubicle. Sentence has been adjourned until the end of August. HS&Co often defend in both sexual and assault cases.