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17/12/01 - Whiting judge: I've no
regrets
A judge who sentenced child killer Roy Whiting to four
years in jail in 1995 for sexually assaulting a young
girl today insisted: "I've no regrets." Whiting
went on to kill eight-year-old Sarah Payne after serving
just over two years of his sentence, passed down by
Judge John Gower.
The judge, who is now retired, said criticism that the
sentence was too short was "water off a duck's
back". "I passed a just and proper sentence,
and I've no regrets about it," he said. He had
told Whiting he was giving him the maximum possible
credit for his guilty plea and for his frankness in
admitting what he'd done.
Judge Gower said he told the defendant: "The sentence
of the court upon you, which is one properly punishing
you for what you have done, is four years imprisonment
on each account, to be served concurrently." The
judge told BBC Radio 4 Today's programme: "That
was a perfectly, proper, right and just sentence.
What people don't realise is that no judge, as it were,
passes a sentence off the top of his head." Judge
Gower added that judges would refer to guidelines, and
case law and then pass a sentence which he or she considered
to be just and appropriate in the light of current sentencing
parameters.
He said he would have to research the current sentencing
guidelines before answering whether, in hindsight, it
was appropriate for the crime that was committed. He
added: "I suspect that today the sentence would
be heavier.
I am not going to say that there was too lenient a regime,
but I have absolutely no hesitation in saying that in
my view the Court of Appeal's general attitude to sexual
offences was perhaps not quite as severe as some of
the lesser judiciary would have liked.
"We are not a fascist state yet, and I hope we
never shall be, and we are not in the business in our
criminal justice system of punishing people for offences
which they have yet to commit." Judge Gower said
the law which created the Sexual Offenders Register
had been a knee-jerk reaction and not fully thought
out.
He added: "My own view is that a general public
naming and shaming would be totally pointless because
it is naive to assume that a paedophile is going to
operate on his own doorstep, that he is going to give
rein to his disgusting tendencies and he knows that
he's known in his area, he is going to go into some
other area.
"But having said that, I certainly think that when
somebody who has been released from a sentence for molesting
a child ... his name and his whereabouts ought to be
made known to relevant head teachers in his area."
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