Friday 12th September 2014

(10 years, 3 months ago)

Petitions
Read Hansard Text
The Petition of residents of Clwyd South,
Declares that the Petitioners believe that the two-year suspended sentence and three hundred hours of community service handed down to Dennis Igo was far too low; further that Mr Igo possessed more than 250,000 indecent images of children; further that the Petitioners believe that Mr Igo used his wife’s illness as an excuse for his behaviour; further that the Petitioners believe that Mr Igo’s wife’s illness should not have been used as a mitigating factor; further that the Petitioners believe that the low sentence handed down to Mr Igo sends the wrong message to other people committing similar offences; and further that a local Petition on this subject has received over 100 signatures.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons requests that the Attorney General review the sentence given to Dennis Igo.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Susan Elan Jones, Official Report, 16 July 2014; Vol. 584, c. 975.]
[P001371]
Observations from the Solicitor-General, received 11 September 2014;
The Government thank the Member for Clwyd South (Susan Elan Jones) for her petition requesting that the Attorney-General review the sentence passed on Dennis Igo.
The Law Officers (the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General) have the power, under section 36 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, to refer to the Court of Appeal sentences passed in the Crown Court which appear to them to be unduly lenient. However this applies to sentences for certain offences only. Dennis Igo was sentenced for offences that are not in the unduly lenient sentence scheme and there is no power for the Law Officers to refer this sentence to the Court of Appeal.