Pre sentence reports
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My son has his plea hearing next week and we have seen our solicitor today who has explained that after the plea, he will be assigned a probation officer who will prepare pre sentence reports and that my son and ourselves will need to write a supporting statement. What sort of information needs to go in the statements ? He was arrested at age 18 , offences date stamped from age 14-18 . He was diagnosed with autism shortly after his arrest
Your pre-sentence support should emphasise that he has a supportive family.Has he done any courses/counselling to help him understand the gravity of what he has done & why it is wrong?
Were there any mitigating circumstances at the time?
Include the letter that confirmed his autism diagnosis.
These are just a few suggestions. Others will add I'm sure.
You know your son better than anyone. You are his advocate.
Good luck
Were there any mitigating circumstances at the time?
Include the letter that confirmed his autism diagnosis.
These are just a few suggestions. Others will add I'm sure.
You know your son better than anyone. You are his advocate.
Good luck
We were advised that character references should be no more than 1 page long and should avoid commenting on potential outcomes.
Our references outlined the fact that my son was remorseful, how he had pleaded guilty right from his arrest, what he had done since and how he was a different person to the one arrested.
He had 4 x character references plus a letter from his therapist and a letter from LFF. The judge said he had read them all.
The character reference was laid apout as follows,
introduction of the person writing the letter including name, age, occupation and qualifications.
Statement which said the person was fully aware of the charges
Paragraph explaining what was going on in his life at the time
What has happened in his life since his arrest, marriage ended, loss of home, job, family etc
What he has done since the arrest, medication, psychotherapy, LFF course
What he has learned and put in place to help prevent reoffending,
Summary explaining that the person you see in court is a different person to the one who committed the offence and how he has spent the past 22 months on a journey of reflection and self improvement.
I hope this helps.
Our references outlined the fact that my son was remorseful, how he had pleaded guilty right from his arrest, what he had done since and how he was a different person to the one arrested.
He had 4 x character references plus a letter from his therapist and a letter from LFF. The judge said he had read them all.
The character reference was laid apout as follows,
introduction of the person writing the letter including name, age, occupation and qualifications.
Statement which said the person was fully aware of the charges
Paragraph explaining what was going on in his life at the time
What has happened in his life since his arrest, marriage ended, loss of home, job, family etc
What he has done since the arrest, medication, psychotherapy, LFF course
What he has learned and put in place to help prevent reoffending,
Summary explaining that the person you see in court is a different person to the one who committed the offence and how he has spent the past 22 months on a journey of reflection and self improvement.
I hope this helps.