Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

I have emailed the Attorney General and asked him to refer Husband's sentence to the Court of Appeal as being unduly lenient.

The text of my email reads:

James Andrew Husband was sentenced before the Lewes Crown Court on Friday 13th July 2018 (HHJ Henson QC) under case number T20177346 to a total term of seventeen years imprisonment for an offence of rape and five offences of indecent assault. At the time of the offences he was a teacher a boarding school and the victim was a pupil in his care.

For the purposes of totality, the sentencing judge reduced what would otherwise have been a total sentence of nineteen years imprisonment to seventeen years imprisonment. The judge determined that a total sentence of five and a half years imprisonment would have been appropriate for the indecent assault offences and a sentence of thirteen and half years imprisonment appropriate for the rape offence.

The offender denied all matters and was tried over a period of some five weeks before being convicted by the jury.

The sentencing judge found that the indecent assault offences fell into category 1A of the Sentencing Guidelines for Sexual Assault (being the nearest comparable offence) having regard to the severe psychological harm suffered by the victim, the victim’s particular vulnerability, and the gross abuse of trust involved. The aggravating features included grooming the victim over a period of three years, targeting of the victim, the location of the offences (the victim should have felt safe at school), the timing (during school hours) and the huge disparity in age (the offender was in his 40s and the victim was aged 14-16.

Despite the same factors being relevant to the Guidelines for rape, the sentencing judge held that the rape fell towards the upper end of category 2A on the Sentencing Guidelines. The prosecutor referred to the severe psychological harm suffered by the victim, her particular vulnerability, the gross abuse of trust, the significant degree of planning and the effect on the victim’s studies. The prosecutor described the severe psychological harm and your particular vulnerability as being “extreme” factors in category 2.

Please accept this as a request to refer the sentence in this case to the Court of Appeal. The sentencing judge was wrong to find that the rape offence fell within category 2A of the Sentencing Guidelines and should have found that it fell within category 1A. As a consequence the sentence was unduly lenient.

This is the link with the email etc should anyone wish to follow suit
https://www.gov.uk/ask-crown-court-sentence-review

I would encourage as many people as possible to do so.

The judge has got it wrong twice already and the rape in this case is about as bad as it gets.

If it helps this is what I sent it for Peter Webb.
Dear Madam or Sir,

I am writing to refer the sentence passed upon one Peter WEBB to the Attorney General as being Unduly Lenient.

WEBB was sentenced to a term of four years imprisonment at Hove Trial Centre at 1400 on Friday 15 December at Hove Trial Centre (some reports say Brighton Trial Centre) although the case was listed at Lewes Crown Court.

The Sentencing Judge was Judge Christine Henson QC.

I do not have the case number but the Officer in charge of investigation is DC Rebecca Wilde of Sussex Police.

Webb pleaded guilty to 11 of 12 counts of indecent assault. I do know how at what stage of the process he entered his guilty pleas and one charge was left to lie on file.

Given he had recently served a term of imprisonment it seems to me that he should not be granted the same level of mitigation in respect of his guilty pleas as someone who genuinely pleads guilty at the earliest possible stage, given he avoided conviction for these offense at the first opportunity.

It was noted in Court that he had already served a term of imprisonment in 2015 for a similar offence, and did not admit guilt for the current offences at this point in time, which the Judge (clearly rightly) saw as an aggravating factor.

I understand WEBB put forward in mitigation that he thought his actions were less harmful as the victims were asleep at the time, and that he left the teaching profession thereafter, although it is clear that he continued to maintain links to Christs Hospital School as is evident (see links at end of my email).

I trust the Attorney General will share my abhorrence that the notion that sexual offending conducted against a child believed to be asleep is in any way deserve of 'credit' compared to other forms of child abuse, and the fact that WEBB saw fit to put this forward in mitigation in reality points not only to his willingness to clutch at straws to prevent a longer term of imprisonment, no matter how abhorrent the argument (and potentially distressing for his victims) he chose to advance, and in reality points to the reality that there really is very little, or no, mitigation. I do not see how someone working as a teacher in charge of the care of a large number of children can use the fact of intoxication as a mitigating factor- this would seem to be a clearly aggravating factor, indeed if such a situation was to occur without any sexual offending taking place (i.e. a Housemaster was in charge of a board house and was simply intoxicated) then clearly disciplinary, regulatory and potentially criminal offences would in themselves need to be investigated.

WEBB is somewhat advanced in years but I am not aware of any evidence before the court of any exceptional health problems on his part, and Sex Offenders almost 30 years older than Webb have recently been sentenced to terms of imprisonment. Webb can clearly be seen making his own way into court comfortably enough, and carrying his own belongings.

I understand that the Judge can only pass the sentence which was in place at the time of WEBB's offences, however it does seem to me that given the number and gravity of offences, the previous jail sentence, the potentially aggravating use of alcohol, the clear positions (note use of plural) trust that WEBB was in (in fact being promoted from the role of Teacher to Housemaster [a particular position of trust involving living alongside boys in a Board House which WEBB clearly chose to take up over and above his general teaching post, presumably due to the increase his access to potential victims and it is also one which would have attracted a higher salary) during his time at Christ's Hospital indicate that this sentence clearly falls into the category of 'undue lenience' and this inadequate sentence not only will fail to punish WEBB sufficiently, it will also fail to deter others who might commit such offences and may also deter other victims of non-recent sexual abuse from coming forward in the future, given that people may reach the conclusion that if a serial sexual offender is only going to serve such a limited time in jail that the inevitable distress and trauma of the investigation and court process is simply 'not worth it'.

I have not previously had cause to instigate this process (that of referring a sentence to the Attorney General as unduly lenient) and I would be most grateful for confirmation that this email has been received, and that my email has successfully functioned as the necessary referral to the Attorney General, and any other guidance or information about the process(including timescales) which you are able to furnish.

If there is anything further I need to do in order for this to happen, then please advise.

I would also be extremely grateful if you were able to keep me up to date with this process of referral, and potential referral to the Court of Appeal from here as it develops. Should you require more information from me in order to facilitate this, then please let me know.

I would be grateful if you are able to supply me with a copy of the Sentencing Remarks when they become available, as well as any other information related to WEBB’s convictions which you are able to furnish.

The fullest media article I can find is here.
https://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/cr ... -1-8293996

There is also some information in this video news report beyond what is in the written article here
https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2017- ... -offences/

Here is one reference to Webb's continued involved with matters related to Christ's Hospital, undermining his mitigation that he left the teaching profession to somehow protect children here (please scroll down to page 6 of the PDF which opens at the link below)
http://choba.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/ ... -SMALL.pdf

Many thanks for your time and consideration.

And for Burr

I write to refer the case of Peter BURR to the Attorney General as unduly lenient.

Burr was jailed for four years on Friday 5 Jan 2018 at Hove Trial Centre (Lewes Crown Court) having admitted 9 counts of indecent assault. There are details in this article.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... ing-pupils

This seems an unduly lenient sentence, not least as BURR was in a condierable period of trust, trust which he abused in order to abuse his victims.

Furthermore, it is noted that Burr's victims' were specially vulnerable, as it poginantly detailed in the attached media report i.e. here

You had unlimited access to vulnerable young boys separated from their families. They obtained a place at the school because of the death of a parent or a low income. This strengthened their reluctance to speak out about you.”

Burr continued in the teaching profession after leaving Christ's Hospital, and also attended Christ's Hospital Scout Camps well into the 1990s, having further access to pupils as a result. This seem to be aggravating factors, as do grooming behaviours such alluring pupils to his study with chocolate biscuits.

I would also note that Burr turned up late for his sentencing.

I would be grateful if this matter can be referred to the Attorney General for Consideration.

Please confirm receipt and confirm that this email has successfully initiated the process of referral.

I like those.

In this case Husband ticked all the right (or should that be wrong?!!!) boxes for category 1. The sentencing remarks make horrific reading.

I have been trying to track down transcripts of the judgments of the Court of Appeal for Webb and Burr but haven't had any success yet. Sadly.

FOI? Or can he court be emailed directly?

interestingly the list to a CH newspaper in the email I've cut and pasted re Webb, which referred to him and then current staff attendeing some sort of event together no longer works. Presumably this is just a coincident. I think I saved a copy somewhere.

I don't think the Court will let you have them.

There are a lot of current awareness sites that carry transcripts but none that I subscribe to have them.

LHA wrote: Sun Jul 15, 2018 10:40 pm interestingly the list to a CH newspaper in the email I've cut and pasted re Webb, which referred to him and then current staff attendeing some sort of event together no longer works. Presumably this is just a coincident. I think I saved a copy somewhere.

Was this about meeting up at a hotel in Scotland?

yes, pretty sure it was, do you have one? normally i remember this stuff but can't recall details. do post if u have it

I haven't got it but I remember it.

Pretty sure it was the Caledonian Hotel.

The time limit for this expires on Friday so I will chase the Attorney General's office for the decision.

Richard,

The awareness sites that you refer to, are these legal pages that publish cases or are they more understandable for a lay person about current judgement and the rationale behind sentencing.

I only work with Planning QCs and having attended a few appeals find how judgement have come about to be fascinating and varied

Peter,

The main case database that is www.bailii.org

I subscribe to a criminal judgment database and have various CDs with case reports on them. Everything is readily available now, although some services have to he paid for.

In a storage unit I have about 2500 volumes of law reports which are completely useless and pretty much unsellable!!

Most judgments are written in advance and there is an army of law graduates in the Royal Courts of Justice writing summaries and researching the law for them.

If they don't interrupt you in the first five minutes and let you drone on, you know you have lost.

richardb wrote: Wed Aug 08, 2018 5:18 pm
The main case database that is www.bailii.org

Is this where we will eventually be able to obtain court transcripts from? I am very interested in getting more detail on the SMT's responses to various questions, beyond what was quoted in the newspapers.