Probation service
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Hi my husband has his first appointment with the probation service next week for a pre sentence report. If I post a few questions can any tell me about what their experience of this is?
Did the court follow any advice given on the report or even look at it
Can the probation service ask for certain conditions if he gets a suspended sentence like contact with children etc
How aften did anyone have to see them after sentencing, was it a weekly thing
Do they do home visits
Did they seem helpful or not
Any help would be very useful as this is another step and once again I have no idea what to expect. Every time something new happens I get panicky all over again.
Did the court follow any advice given on the report or even look at it
Can the probation service ask for certain conditions if he gets a suspended sentence like contact with children etc
How aften did anyone have to see them after sentencing, was it a weekly thing
Do they do home visits
Did they seem helpful or not
Any help would be very useful as this is another step and once again I have no idea what to expect. Every time something new happens I get panicky all over again.
Hi Ann,
My partner's probation report was followed pretty much to the letter by the judge. They talked a little bit about the offence, but mainly about the steps he had taken since his arrest. The fact he had been engaging with the helpline and had completed the safer life's program really impressed the officer, they talked about what would happen after sentence and my partner spoke about the help he would like to receive to make sure he never reoffends.
He was classed as extremely low risk of reoffending and the probation officer recommended a 2 year community order, a curfew and rehabilitation days, which is what the judge sentenced him to. Along with 5 years sor and shop.
Since sentencing he has seen his probation officer most weeks for a short catch up, he's started a course about building better relationships and on those weeks he doesn't see his probation officer.
His probation officer seems to be really good and helpful, he allowed me to to the induction with him so that I had an idea about what would happen, and he's just at the end of the phone if anything needs to be checked.
I think my partner being so keen to engage and work with them was the reason he was given this sentence, as the starting point was a 1year custodial.
Hope this helps and wishing you all the best for the future.
My partner's probation report was followed pretty much to the letter by the judge. They talked a little bit about the offence, but mainly about the steps he had taken since his arrest. The fact he had been engaging with the helpline and had completed the safer life's program really impressed the officer, they talked about what would happen after sentence and my partner spoke about the help he would like to receive to make sure he never reoffends.
He was classed as extremely low risk of reoffending and the probation officer recommended a 2 year community order, a curfew and rehabilitation days, which is what the judge sentenced him to. Along with 5 years sor and shop.
Since sentencing he has seen his probation officer most weeks for a short catch up, he's started a course about building better relationships and on those weeks he doesn't see his probation officer.
His probation officer seems to be really good and helpful, he allowed me to to the induction with him so that I had an idea about what would happen, and he's just at the end of the phone if anything needs to be checked.
I think my partner being so keen to engage and work with them was the reason he was given this sentence, as the starting point was a 1year custodial.
Hope this helps and wishing you all the best for the future.
Thank you that's really helpful. Do you mind me asking what the conviction was? My husband's is for downloading/viewing indecent images. I'm worried about the curfew or tagging think as he has a job which involves some shift work and if he gets a suspended sentence he'd obviously like to keep it.
Hello Ann
My partner was given 60 rehabilitation days with probation following his two year suspended sentence. The policy regarding probation visits/involvement was changed approximately 18 months ago and all offenders will need to regularly visit and sign as attending probation for the duration of their sentence.
During the 18 months which have past probation initially stated he must visit once a week. This has now changed to every 5 weeks. I believe the necessity of weekly visits at the beginning was their genuine concern that my partner was in a very dark place and a duty of care.
During the first 6 months he was given written projects to complete. These consisted of asking him to write about his life, his childhood and career. He was also asked to put down in writing his fears, what drove him to look at porn and why he went from looking at legal images to illegal ones. He was given further home work to explain his support groups/family etc. Finally one of the last projects was to put in writing those he admired, respected and how he now saw himself and what his future ambitions were.
Probation has been an opportunity for him to discuss privately his feelings and off set his shame and remorse.
Once the paperwork/project is completed the visits are simply a welfare check, sign as attending and that's it. They are unable to assist in employment apart from giving advice. During the past 18 months probation have visited our property once and they were in company with his PPU officer. During the same period the police have visited three times to check his mobile phone. His only condition is not to delete the Internet history...
Best wishes...
My partner was given 60 rehabilitation days with probation following his two year suspended sentence. The policy regarding probation visits/involvement was changed approximately 18 months ago and all offenders will need to regularly visit and sign as attending probation for the duration of their sentence.
During the 18 months which have past probation initially stated he must visit once a week. This has now changed to every 5 weeks. I believe the necessity of weekly visits at the beginning was their genuine concern that my partner was in a very dark place and a duty of care.
During the first 6 months he was given written projects to complete. These consisted of asking him to write about his life, his childhood and career. He was also asked to put down in writing his fears, what drove him to look at porn and why he went from looking at legal images to illegal ones. He was given further home work to explain his support groups/family etc. Finally one of the last projects was to put in writing those he admired, respected and how he now saw himself and what his future ambitions were.
Probation has been an opportunity for him to discuss privately his feelings and off set his shame and remorse.
Once the paperwork/project is completed the visits are simply a welfare check, sign as attending and that's it. They are unable to assist in employment apart from giving advice. During the past 18 months probation have visited our property once and they were in company with his PPU officer. During the same period the police have visited three times to check his mobile phone. His only condition is not to delete the Internet history...
Best wishes...
Hi Anne.
I spoke to my partner to get his thoughts. The pre sentence meeting for the report is a chance for your husband to give their side of their story, what they have done to combat the illegal behaviour since the knock and their plans and motivations to not reoffend. Your husband will have to be honest to get the best outcome for any support and probation can spot lies.their report can provide recommendations to the judge.
After sentencing it is likely your husband will need to see their probation officer once a week. Mine has done so for 6 months and no signs this will change. Meetings can run between 15 to 30 mins and due to my partner's job he has had phone meetings when needed. Home visit for us has been twice between probation officer and police liaison. This happened within the first few weeks of sentencing and nothing else since.
The first few months will be probation assessing risk factors including to the public, children, self etc. My partner did highlight that this report only covered his behaviour before the knock and had little to no consideration for his own rehabilitation with LF and sex addiction anonymous groups. But this is only his experience. He is very positive of his probation team. The police liaison is less so but is kinda expected. They put in their home visit report that despite not meeting me coz I wasn't available on that day that they described me as childish because I have Disney figurines on display in the flat! We did kick up a fuss about this since I had not met the officer at all and comments like that I was worried would give a bad impression on my partner. So I suggest try to be present for the first visit or two. And ask the probation officer if you can attend some meetings. I have been to a few and is a good insight.
Hope that helps
I spoke to my partner to get his thoughts. The pre sentence meeting for the report is a chance for your husband to give their side of their story, what they have done to combat the illegal behaviour since the knock and their plans and motivations to not reoffend. Your husband will have to be honest to get the best outcome for any support and probation can spot lies.their report can provide recommendations to the judge.
After sentencing it is likely your husband will need to see their probation officer once a week. Mine has done so for 6 months and no signs this will change. Meetings can run between 15 to 30 mins and due to my partner's job he has had phone meetings when needed. Home visit for us has been twice between probation officer and police liaison. This happened within the first few weeks of sentencing and nothing else since.
The first few months will be probation assessing risk factors including to the public, children, self etc. My partner did highlight that this report only covered his behaviour before the knock and had little to no consideration for his own rehabilitation with LF and sex addiction anonymous groups. But this is only his experience. He is very positive of his probation team. The police liaison is less so but is kinda expected. They put in their home visit report that despite not meeting me coz I wasn't available on that day that they described me as childish because I have Disney figurines on display in the flat! We did kick up a fuss about this since I had not met the officer at all and comments like that I was worried would give a bad impression on my partner. So I suggest try to be present for the first visit or two. And ask the probation officer if you can attend some meetings. I have been to a few and is a good insight.
Hope that helps
He was guilty of making iioc, he was in a chat room on Kik and somebody posted some links which he klicked on, the judge accepted that he hadn't searched for them, didn't know what they were before he saw them, and that there was a low number, less than 30 and he'd only had them for a very short time.
He was lucky because there were a couple of short videos as well, his barrister told us that usually means starting point is followed. Before his probation report his barrister was talking about a suspended sentence, after he saw the probation report he was hopeful the judge would follow the report as he said he'd never seen such a positive report.
I found really it a scary process as your totally helpless to do anything, I told my partner to tell the truth, show the remorse he'd shown me, and accept he needs help.
He was lucky because there were a couple of short videos as well, his barrister told us that usually means starting point is followed. Before his probation report his barrister was talking about a suspended sentence, after he saw the probation report he was hopeful the judge would follow the report as he said he'd never seen such a positive report.
I found really it a scary process as your totally helpless to do anything, I told my partner to tell the truth, show the remorse he'd shown me, and accept he needs help.
Also, in regards to the curfew, whilst it didn't affect my partner around work, there was a report in the local paper recently about someone being placed on a curfew 6 nights a week as they worked 1night a week. So it is possible they would make an allowance for work.
The hardest part about him being on the curfew was that it malfunctioned a couple of times and the ring on the monitor is like the loudest fire alarm you can imagine, you wake with a pounding heart when that goes off at 2in the morning.
The hardest part about him being on the curfew was that it malfunctioned a couple of times and the ring on the monitor is like the loudest fire alarm you can imagine, you wake with a pounding heart when that goes off at 2in the morning.
Joe
can I ask did your partner plead guilty? Or did he have a defence? As it sounds as though if he hadn't searched or known what the images were before opening that he wouldn't be guilty? Or was it because he didn't delete straight away? Only asking as my partner too accessed legal porn via kik but denies seeing any IIOC. So I'm just trying to fathom what path court will take if there is a charge.
can I ask did your partner plead guilty? Or did he have a defence? As it sounds as though if he hadn't searched or known what the images were before opening that he wouldn't be guilty? Or was it because he didn't delete straight away? Only asking as my partner too accessed legal porn via kik but denies seeing any IIOC. So I'm just trying to fathom what path court will take if there is a charge.
Hi,
My partner admitted his guilt as soon as the police arrived at the house. He co operated and was upfront about exactly what he'd done. When the forensic report on his phone came back it confirmed what he had already told police.
Right from the start he told me he was guilty and would be pleading guilty. When we spoke to his barrister he agreed that was the right thing to do. If he had clicked on 1 link and stopped he may have had a defence, but he clicked on a further 2 links, from what I understand the last link had all the cat a' images and that's what stopped him. He says he panicked and didn't know what to do, but it was too late by then.
His barrister said afterwards, that it was the absolute acceptance of guilt, remorse and willingness to engage that resulted in his sentence.
I would advise anyone who clicks on a link that takes them to this kind of material to go straight to the police and tell them what's happened, they can see exactly what you've been doing and if you have come across this as a mistake they'll know and that's your defence.
My partner admitted his guilt as soon as the police arrived at the house. He co operated and was upfront about exactly what he'd done. When the forensic report on his phone came back it confirmed what he had already told police.
Right from the start he told me he was guilty and would be pleading guilty. When we spoke to his barrister he agreed that was the right thing to do. If he had clicked on 1 link and stopped he may have had a defence, but he clicked on a further 2 links, from what I understand the last link had all the cat a' images and that's what stopped him. He says he panicked and didn't know what to do, but it was too late by then.
His barrister said afterwards, that it was the absolute acceptance of guilt, remorse and willingness to engage that resulted in his sentence.
I would advise anyone who clicks on a link that takes them to this kind of material to go straight to the police and tell them what's happened, they can see exactly what you've been doing and if you have come across this as a mistake they'll know and that's your defence.
Thank you Joe for your reply. That makes sense. I'm just hoping my partner is being honest but it's just a waiting game in the meantime. Thanks again x
My partners conviction was for viewing images. The initial probabtion report assessed as medium risk, but seemed to suggest that was because there had been no intervention at that point, so not enough info to actually state low risk. The probation report agreed that contact offending was not likely, and that he wasn't interested in young children, but had a interest in older teenagers (sadly it did not differentiate between older as in legal teenagers or not). They recommended a non-custodial sentence, but sadly the judge went for a custodial one - which due to the low amount of images, and the circumstances was a shock. The probabtion afterwards were very reasonable, and they gave lots of counselling. They were frank, and acknowledged that giving incentives to people to plead gulity, means that some innocent people plead guilty. They didn't seem to think His pre sentence probation report unfortunately noted his place of work, this is something that had been avoided in court, just stating a rough descripition as opposed to the actual name of the company. Sadly the judge asked if he still worked for the company by name. I think this is because there was press at the sentencnig hearing. So he could ask if the probation report could avoud naming his place of work in any documents that go to the judge