First day at magistrates court...
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My partner has been at magistrates court today. He is charged with posession of iioc - 1 B and 190 C.
He is not going to crown court but back to magistrates court in 8 weeks for sentencing. Has anyone heard of this before? I fully expected it to be going to crown court. Does anyone know the max sentence that can be handed out at magistrates court? My partners soilcitor thinks he will probably get a community service order (i think thats what he said as i've only got this info second hand from him.. im not quite sure what that is - is it just community service?)
Not sure if anyone can help but I just have a few other questions. He has to go and sign tomorrow on the SOR (we think its the SOR, which is my first question - is it the SOR or SHPO - can anyone tell me the difference and can you get one or do you always get both? His solicitor thinks it'll be for 5 years)
His solicitor has also advised him to write a letter of apology for what he has done and asked me to write one too. I've seen ladies on here mention doing this before for their partners - what sort of thing should I write in my letter?
Also the LF course was spoken about - ive seen this mentioned on here before.. can anyone tell me how we go about doing it? im sure i read its expensive which worries me a little as we can barely afford the solicitor fees!
He is not going to crown court but back to magistrates court in 8 weeks for sentencing. Has anyone heard of this before? I fully expected it to be going to crown court. Does anyone know the max sentence that can be handed out at magistrates court? My partners soilcitor thinks he will probably get a community service order (i think thats what he said as i've only got this info second hand from him.. im not quite sure what that is - is it just community service?)
Not sure if anyone can help but I just have a few other questions. He has to go and sign tomorrow on the SOR (we think its the SOR, which is my first question - is it the SOR or SHPO - can anyone tell me the difference and can you get one or do you always get both? His solicitor thinks it'll be for 5 years)
His solicitor has also advised him to write a letter of apology for what he has done and asked me to write one too. I've seen ladies on here mention doing this before for their partners - what sort of thing should I write in my letter?
Also the LF course was spoken about - ive seen this mentioned on here before.. can anyone tell me how we go about doing it? im sure i read its expensive which worries me a little as we can barely afford the solicitor fees!
Hi there.
From my understanding magistrates can max custodial for 6 months. They can also set community service hours. SOR is the need to register details to the police (e.g. address, car reg, etc- this needs to do each time details chnage and annual checks).
SHPO are the restrictions on what your partner can and cannot do e.g. internet use, contact with children. Not sure if this will be set by magistrates. There is a good flow diagram on stop it now website to run through the options.
The inform course is free for family and friends (but I think a donation is requested), £800 quid for offenders. Can be paid in installments. Highly recommended.
The character references is the letter you mention. You can find templates inli e since these are applicable for all types of offences. Essentially it is for you to explain what you know about the offender and their offending and what you know about their remorse and how they have tried to rehabilitate. It isn't for people to state what they thing the offender deserves as a sentence because that is the judge to decide.
I can't say whether my partner's submitted letters helped but no harm in trying.
From my understanding magistrates can max custodial for 6 months. They can also set community service hours. SOR is the need to register details to the police (e.g. address, car reg, etc- this needs to do each time details chnage and annual checks).
SHPO are the restrictions on what your partner can and cannot do e.g. internet use, contact with children. Not sure if this will be set by magistrates. There is a good flow diagram on stop it now website to run through the options.
The inform course is free for family and friends (but I think a donation is requested), £800 quid for offenders. Can be paid in installments. Highly recommended.
The character references is the letter you mention. You can find templates inli e since these are applicable for all types of offences. Essentially it is for you to explain what you know about the offender and their offending and what you know about their remorse and how they have tried to rehabilitate. It isn't for people to state what they thing the offender deserves as a sentence because that is the judge to decide.
I can't say whether my partner's submitted letters helped but no harm in trying.
Because there are no cat A's and sounds like no distribution he hasn't exceeded their threshold for sentencing and therefore it will be dealt with in magistrates rather than crown which is far better. With those numbers of images and the categories it won't be a custodial sentence. If it was then that would be very unjust.
Thanks for the replies and the info. I had it in my head for some reason that magistrates court didn't do custodial sentences. I guess i'm still confident it won't go that way but i also know you can never know these things for sure. His solicitor thought a communtiy order - and a suspended sentence at worst so hope he is right. I'm definitely thankful its not going to crown though as i was sure it would.
He is going tomorrow to the police station to sign the SOR. He thinks its 5 years but not sure.. will that be confirmed at the next court hearing? and will the SHPO be for the same amount of time?
I just wanted to ask too on the SHPO front (im only just learning about this bit), i guess it covers contact with children, and my partner said something about registering any devices which have the internet - so id say his ipad, phone, my laptop... something else he said has worried me though - because he uses a computer at work his solicitor thought theyd have to inform his workplace. They don't know anything about it currently and now im stressing massively that he will loose his job through all this (which we really can't afford for him to do), does anyone have experience of this with the SHPO?
He is going tomorrow to the police station to sign the SOR. He thinks its 5 years but not sure.. will that be confirmed at the next court hearing? and will the SHPO be for the same amount of time?
I just wanted to ask too on the SHPO front (im only just learning about this bit), i guess it covers contact with children, and my partner said something about registering any devices which have the internet - so id say his ipad, phone, my laptop... something else he said has worried me though - because he uses a computer at work his solicitor thought theyd have to inform his workplace. They don't know anything about it currently and now im stressing massively that he will loose his job through all this (which we really can't afford for him to do), does anyone have experience of this with the SHPO?
My partner has a work computer and since he works from home (covid) all he had to do was give the police the series number and model. His work have no idea about his conviction.
Hi majestic thanks for the info
it's good your partner didn't have to inform his work, I really hope our situation is the same. I think the concern was that he has access to internet on his works computer so could use their connection to access whatever he wanted away from our home. We are hoping we can find a way around it because if his work find out we think he would loose his job.
it's good your partner didn't have to inform his work, I really hope our situation is the same. I think the concern was that he has access to internet on his works computer so could use their connection to access whatever he wanted away from our home. We are hoping we can find a way around it because if his work find out we think he would loose his job.
I'm not sure if all police feel the same but for my partner they were not worried about his internet use at the office because they assume his company have safe guard measures, he also works in an office with others so won't be alone.
The tech at home needed to be listed because it has access to our router and therefore the same IP address.
The tech at home needed to be listed because it has access to our router and therefore the same IP address.
Well this is the thing, his workplace have quite a strict policy on what you can and can't use and I'm sure websites even just like Facebook are blocked for them to use. He did mention to his solicitor if he could get a copy of the company handbook internet useage section would it help.. and to even view porn on their computers would flag up to the IT dept straight away. He also sits in an office with a colleague. I'm really hoping we can find a way around this one as I hadn't even considered it until he told me!