The Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday said it was tragic that a series of sexual crimes, including rape and buggery, which began when the young male victim was nine years old and his assailant was 14, and continued for five years, were not spotted earlier "when some of the damage done to the lives of both young men might have been averted".
Mr Justice Barrington made the comment after the court dismissed an appeal against a five-year sentence imposed at the Central Criminal Court in March 1998 on the assailant, now aged 25, after he pleaded guilty to 12 representative charges including rape of the boy between 1990 to 1995.
Presenting the appeal, Mr Barry White SC said his client had been described in probation reports as "extremely immature and emotionally fragile" and was surely more in need of assistance than punishment.
Dismissing the appeal, Mr Justice Barrington said the court had carefully considered what Mr White had said, but the victim impact report showed the crimes had done great damage to the victim.
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