Sentencing Outcome
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I know people often want to know sentencing outcomes so thought I would share my husbands in case it helped anyone - although of course every situation is unique and also the outcome very judge dependant!
Process from arrest to sentencing has been just over 16 months. "Making" across all 3 Cats (just over 100 in each cat), with aggravating factors such as the number of images, the fact there was cat A, age of the children in the images, and the duration of his offending (years). Outcome was 2yrs, suspended for 2yrs (so no prison time). 10yrs SOR and SHPO (all internet/device based, no contact restrictions), 200+hrs community service, plus RAR Days. Whilst there were clearly aggravating factors that were taken into account, there was also some strong mitigating factors also (not previously known to the police, previously of good character, PTSD diagnosis, strong character references, genuine remorse demonstrated, and most importantly clear evidence of efforts to rehabilitate, e.g Safer Lives, weekly therapy, sobriety).
I would just add that my husbands offending pathway was born out of him living with undiagnosed PTSD for over decade following a very traumatic event, and instead of seeking help he turned to alcohol and porn as maladaptive coping mechanisms. He has no sexual interest in children, yet the combination of alcohol dependence and an escalating porn addiction lead him down a dark path. He is filled with shame and regret, and is working very hard every day to turn his life around and to become the best version of himself.
We are now waiting on his PO getting in touch as well as his offending manager. I will also be self-referring back to SS so we can start the process of trying to get back to my husband being able to return to sleeping in the family home and eventually unsupervised contact with his 2 children and his 2 step-children. Although I appreciate this will be a long and arduous process.
Still a long road ahead, 'normality' (or anything close to) still feels like a way off, but knowing the sentencing outcome does bring huge relief. I'm sure many agree that it is the not knowing that causes a lot of distress.
Just sending positivity and strength to anybody going through this living hell x
Process from arrest to sentencing has been just over 16 months. "Making" across all 3 Cats (just over 100 in each cat), with aggravating factors such as the number of images, the fact there was cat A, age of the children in the images, and the duration of his offending (years). Outcome was 2yrs, suspended for 2yrs (so no prison time). 10yrs SOR and SHPO (all internet/device based, no contact restrictions), 200+hrs community service, plus RAR Days. Whilst there were clearly aggravating factors that were taken into account, there was also some strong mitigating factors also (not previously known to the police, previously of good character, PTSD diagnosis, strong character references, genuine remorse demonstrated, and most importantly clear evidence of efforts to rehabilitate, e.g Safer Lives, weekly therapy, sobriety).
I would just add that my husbands offending pathway was born out of him living with undiagnosed PTSD for over decade following a very traumatic event, and instead of seeking help he turned to alcohol and porn as maladaptive coping mechanisms. He has no sexual interest in children, yet the combination of alcohol dependence and an escalating porn addiction lead him down a dark path. He is filled with shame and regret, and is working very hard every day to turn his life around and to become the best version of himself.
We are now waiting on his PO getting in touch as well as his offending manager. I will also be self-referring back to SS so we can start the process of trying to get back to my husband being able to return to sleeping in the family home and eventually unsupervised contact with his 2 children and his 2 step-children. Although I appreciate this will be a long and arduous process.
Still a long road ahead, 'normality' (or anything close to) still feels like a way off, but knowing the sentencing outcome does bring huge relief. I'm sure many agree that it is the not knowing that causes a lot of distress.
Just sending positivity and strength to anybody going through this living hell x
It's not often someone comes to these forums with a bit of hope and positivity, so thank you for sharing. Still early days for us so 16 months sounds like such a long time, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel, even if the tunnel is long x
Hope you don't mind me asking but when you mention about self referring back to SS - did they close the case while under investigation.
Hi, they closed the file with a safety plan in place, which requires me to supervise all contact and husband is not allowed to sleep in the family home. Now we have the sentencing outcome I will self-refer back to social so that we can work towards getting him back home properly and being able to have unsupervised contact with his children / step-children. I know it will be a long process, but hopefully by self-referring it will signal to them that I'm being pro-active and on the front foot with it all.
Thank you for sharing and giving some hope. Glad this phase is over for you and you can start to rebuild. I hope you get some progress with SS and be interested to hear how you get on. It's my son under investigation but can't live at home at the moment due to conditions/ siblings and that along with the uncertainty is the worst part of all this so need all the positivity and hope I can get!