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Sentencing – Sexual offences against children. High Court of Justiciary: Allowing an appeal against sentence by an appellant who was convicted of raping and using lewd and libidinous practices towards his teenaged daughter and the teenaged stepdaughter of a work colleague, the court held that the trial judge did not take sufficient account of the significant and unexplained delay in bringing the case to trial, and the cumulative effect of the consecutive sentences imposed had produced an overall sentence (16 years' imprisonment) which was excessive, particularly in the case of a first offender: the court substituted sentences resulting in an overall sentence of 12 years' imprisonment.
Sentencing – Sexual offences against children. High Court of Justiciary: Allowing an appeal against sentence by an appellant who was convicted of raping and using lewd and libidinous practices towards his teenaged daughter and the teenaged stepdaughter of a work colleague, the court held that the trial judge did not take sufficient account of the significant and unexplained delay in bringing the case to trial, and the cumulative effect of the consecutive sentences imposed had produced an overall sentence (16 years' imprisonment) which was excessive, particularly in the case of a first offender: the court substituted sentences resulting in an overall sentence of 12 years' imprisonment.
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