Judge Nicholas Rowland

[TonTonMacoute]

Must never be allowed to preside over a trial involving rape or sexual assault ever again.

This is an interesting article, and looks at sentencing guidelines and other complexities, but please don't let more victims suffer his complete lack of any empathy towards female victims.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/a653d1ed-e178-41a7-bb03-3d433a704520?shareToken=b714a3cc871c7c657515b6594349108e

Even if they did strugge with right and wrong (doubtful), they know distress in another human being when they see it. There is no way around that, so making them out to be inept, thick or whatever is not good enough.

I get this newsletter from Charlotte Proudman's firm and in it they said another judge gave a lenient sentence to a male rapist and the same judge sits in family court cases.

It is endemic.

Point is also it was 11 acts of rape.

Two separate victims

Three months apart

They brought a weapon

They filmed it and shared it

So they didn't just make an opportunistic attack, which is bad enough, this was planned and repeated.

I don’t have enough legal knowledge to know if his sentence was within the stated guidelines.
I cannot understand how serial rapists who plead not guilty can escape a mandatory prison sentence.
Surely putting their victims through the additional trauma of a trial should mean that there should be no mitigation.

According to the BBC it is within what he is allowed to impose as a sentence

But he is a judge. He has final say. He chose this lack of action

If you read the article in the OP you will see that this judge has previous form for giving lenient sentences for male sec offenders and for making similar appalling remarks at sentencing.

I don't think he was threatened at all, he seemed perfectly happy with his decision

Has he really got previous? 🤮

It isn’t counted as rape by one party of another unless there is specifically lack of consent by one party, is the salient point here. You can’t legally consent to sex between 13 and 16 but it’s counted as a different offence if you do.

180k+ signatures now

In an ideal world I would like the public to be able to see the Judge's browsing history.

It can't happen as it's not legal to confiscate his phone but I can't help but think this non-sentence-rapist-sympathising decision of his is a symptom of deeper personal moral corruption.

If someone else has already posted this, I apologise.

An account called Crime Analysis on Facebook has posted that the rapists actually had offended previously, but the police took no further action - hence the judge was given the impression that there was no prior history, since it wasn't in the pre-sentencing report.

Sorry - I don't know how to link this.

🤬 oh the system just makes me want to scream

the rapists actually had offended previously, but the police took no further action

I wonder if the police will be investigated for this.

Isn't it the case that parliament/government won't have anything to do with petitions about honours and appointments? So anything on the subject would have to be phrased so as to demand that anyone in x role doing y should thereby be disqualified? Or something of that sort.

An update. The appeal is now being heard.[that was quick]

The case is being heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in London before the lady chief justice Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, Lord Justice Edis and Mrs Justice Norton.
Opening the case on Wednesday, Tom Little, for the attorney-general, told the Court of Appeal that “no sentence other than detention was appropriate” for the three teenage boys.

www.thetimes.com/article/38b5aff4-b375-4bd0-aba7-a7c8087175f7?shareToken=7f9fc8d11a930c2b49c5b803c0c006b4

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd0m38xndp3t

Four years is a slap on the wrist for multiple rapes, with added sharing video but better than the previous nothing.
Still hope this judge is investigated separate from this as how did he get it so wrong. Incompetence or collusion are the only options.

screenshot from odelay’s link.

Is anyone able to explain what “follow police instructions” means?

The boys were from the travelling community, (who, to be clear, have expressed their horror and abhorrence at the sexual offences committed). I think there may have been some ‘judicial sensitivity’ at play perhaps? Later versions of the story don’t seem to mention this fact.

www.thetimes.com/article/c1414e42-904b-4669-9b19-1659d314bd9d?shareToken=1ba4778585c951678373b8a81be4eef1

Reading that suggests they were well known to the authorities allowed to escalate for years, with their crimes increasing in seriousness until the multiple rapes. Even after that they got a slap on the wrist until the public outcry. This whole process is very poor and has no regard for the victims who are continuously traumatised. We need to bring back punishment for crimes regardless of background or back story as none of this matters to the person whose life is ruined.

No they're not, don't be daft.

Sentencing minors for extreme crimes is difficult.

The judgement today said that Nicholas Rowland had been entitled to pass the sentences he did and that he had been careful in reviewing what sentence to pass.

There is nothing to suggest NR is incompetent or fraudulent.

It's not that difficult to sentence a minor that you somehow squeeze no detention for a long known history of escalating sexual violence. Maybe a murder next might get some custody? Is that the next step up from multiple rapes and child pornography creation and distribution to other children? I'm guessing not every child in custody is a murderer? What's the line?

“……..We need.to bring back punishment for crimes regardless of background or background story as none of this matters to the person whose life is ruined.”

I fully agree with you @ohdelay

In a case that I've already mentioned, a local boy got a short sentence for a crime he committed at 16, since it was a 'first offence' and he pled guilty to the lesser crime of sexual assault. His rape victim was 6 yrs old.

Only after his second crime was he incarcerated in an institution for the criminally insane sine die. (His intelligence was extremely low.)

The problem that we seem to have is that the courts take 'first offence' as a mitigating factor for even the most serious crimes.

Unfortunately the exact opposite was proposed by the Independent Sentencing Council. They were all for judges having to take into account and offenders background and cultural position before sentencing. Thankfully government ministers blocked this dangerous plan.

I was wondering that too. This is what Claude AI came up with:

Because Boy X and Boy Y were given custodial sentences of four years for rape, they're automatically placed on the sex offenders register with an indefinite notification period, since sentences of 30 months or more trigger lifelong registration. In practice, this means that for the rest of their lives, they must:

• Register with the police within 3 days of conviction/release, giving their name, address, date of birth, and National Insurance number
• Notify the police of any change of address, and re-confirm their details annually
• Notify police at least 7 days before any foreign travel of 8+ days, providing travel dates and destinations
• Report certain other changes in circumstances (e.g., living with children, changing their name)

Failing to comply is itself a criminal offence, punishable by up to 5 years in prison.