My person was sentenced as the PSR recommended. Solicitor said it is usually like that, tho of course there are no guarantees.

Ia it really down to the judge?? I thought it was all calculated via a central computer system with all PSR, recommendations, references etc taken into account to determine final sentence so no matter what judge it is the outcome will always be the same. So i thought.

My person's PSR recommended he could serve his sentence in the community but didnt define whether this should be a community order or a suspended sentence. He received a 2 year suspended sentence which is a custodial sentence served in the community.

Our son's situation was identical to Ocean's and he did indeed get a suspended sentence. It will depend on the judge but only within the guidelines in the official sentencing guidelines, which are set as a 'from' and 'to' system with most judges starting their calculations somewhere in the middle and going up or down as they consider mitigating factors for and against. Some offences have no ability to get a community order as the starting point doesn't include that as an option, and a suspended sentence only applies if what would be a custodial sentence is 2 years or less (although that may have been increased recently to 3 years.)

I hope that doesn't sound worrying and your solicitor should have taken all these factors into account in what you've been told. Perhaps you could ask what starting and finishing points would be for your person's specific offences, or you could look at the sentencing guidelines yourself (although I wish I hadn't as it made me extra anxious without any legal knowledge to help interpret them accurately! For example the maximum sentence for our son's offences was more than 2 years so I had it firmly in my head that he would be going to prison and wasted a lot of nights awake stressing about this when It wasn't necessary as his character refs and personal circumstances brought it down to under 2 years. I never learn and had months of needless anxiety.

Good luck xx

The judge knows the day said they wanted to make an example of my person so he got a custodial - came as a bit of a shock at the time.

My Son's PSR also recommended Community Order , He got a Judge who had obviously read all the character references and studied the PSR. He was definitely on my Son's side and not the vigilantes.
we were told to expect Suspended Sentence but he went along with the PSR. Oh how I could have saved myself so many sleepless nights and nagging worry.

The Judge on the day calls the shots. Wishing you all the best, hang on in there and be strong - you will come out the other side a stronger person

The sentencing guidelines for images, do not reflect the reality these days. The courts have taken a different approach, mainly because of the numbers of people being arrested.

The stats show that 70% will receive a non custodial. 40% will be suspended and 30% will receive a community order.

Where do find the stats Edel?

Hiya, My OH was 'making' across all 3 cat's, he got 2yr suspended, which as someone else has mentioned is a custodial, but the judge has the discretion to suspend it so it is served in the community as opposed prison (managed by probation and offender manager). I wonder if that is what they're meaning when they reference 'community', as opposed a 'community order'. My OH said there was a period of about 90 secs where he thought he was going to prison with how the judge was talking, something along the lines of 'I have no doubt this meets the threshold for custodial, and i am starting from the maximum of 3yrs, with 1/3 off for an early guilty plea.. it will be suspended' - so took what felt like an age to say it would be suspended, so prepare yourself for that. The judge will also describe at least 2 images in their sentencing comments, which will be the worst 2, so again, prepare yourself for the harrowing details if you are attending. Hope everything works out for you and your family and you can rebuild from this horrible chapter x