Family and Friends Forum

Sending hugs xxx

My person's offences are the same. I have no advice but I'm here with you. When's sentencing? X

The judge in my sons case did go with the pre sentence report. His offence was communication/incitement (no IIOC). His pre sentence report recommended he serve his sentence in the community and he received a 2 year suspended sentence, community service, a fine, the Horizon course and 10 year SHPO and SOR

My OH had similar charges to your partner as we have discussed in PM and as you know he got 15 months. Recommendation from probation was for a suspended scentence as this was first ever offence, unfortunatly the judge decided to go against the recommendation.

A 2 year community order, SHPO, rehabilitation programme and a fine. All recommended and ordered by the judge.

A, B and C images downloaded.

A suspended sentence is still a custodial sentence, just one that is not served in prison unless you breach the terms of the licence. If the option of suspended sentence didnt exist the person would be going straight to prison so it can't be considered like a community order.

For the purposes of calculating time periods for notification requirements it doesn't matter if its he goes to prison or if he has a suspended sentence as they are treated as the same thing.

I wonder this myself as my person is due sentencing soon, although it's been adjourned three times the night before so far though.
Judges are a law unto themselves, to quite a large extent. Yes, they need to follow the guidelines for sentencing but they're just guidelines. They don't have to pay any attention whatsoever to the probation report either. The pre sentencing probation report in my persons case has recommended a community pay back sentence. I'm staggered by this because this is the second time my ex has offended and was sent to prison for 3 years last time for the same crime of IIOC, so I can't understand why they're recommending anything other than a custodial. A few months ago my ex was in front of a Judge for a plea hearing. His solicitor asked the Judge to delay sentencing until the probation pre sentencing report had been done. The Judge said, "what's the point?! He's done it once, he's done it again. Simple. Why bother getting the report?" The Solicitor argued that it was, "only fair" to get the report so the Judge agreed. The thing is, if my ex gets in front of that particular Judge on the day of sentencing, he's going to give him an immediate custodial. Another Judge might, just might, go with the probations report. Its so incredibly fickle.

The judge went with the PSR for my OH- community order. He communicated online with an adult (police sting) about her fake children- no images involved. He was assessed as medium risk and the judge agreed.

Sorry to jump in. Can I ask whats the difference between a community order and suspended sentence?? I am naive to think they were the same thing? X

A community order is a sentence which can include a variety of community based punishments such as curfew, unpaid work, rehabilitation days, attendance at offender behaviour courses etc. Failing to comply with these will result in a new offence of Breaching a Court Order being committed, which can result in imprisonment.

A suspended sentence is a prison sentence of up to two years which only becomes active if the offender breaches the terms of their licence. So they might be given a 18 month custodial sentence suspended for two years, if the option of suspended sentences didn’t exist the person would be going straight to jail to serve the sentence, however in this case as long as the person complies with the terms of the licence for the next two years then they never set foot in prison, if however they breach the terms of the licence then the person can be picked up by the police and sent straight to the local cat B prison to serve all or part of the 18 month sentence.

A suspended sentence in likely to also have community based punishments like those above included in it and compliance with these will form part of the persons licence conditions.

Hi,


I am like you, I want to know all outcomes, and find out my statistics, odds, calculate my hopes but the justice system doesn’t work like that. 99 husbands could be given suspended sentence, yours may do time, or vice versa.

It depends on the judge, there are guidelines and they make the final judgement considering plea, remorse, support, work undertaken since, as well as punishment of the individual, and protection of the public in balance .

Best of luck with all.

In my partner's case, probation recommended a suspended sentence but unfortunately the Judge did not take the recommendations and he got a custodial sentence... But I understand for this to be quite rare and sadly, also dependent on the judge and the day of the week which is incredibly upsetting and not at all reassuring the sentencing guidelines are being applied consistently. But again, in most circumstances, I understand the judge to follow the pre sentencing report recommendations x

My person was given what was recommended in the pre sentence report. Also got some rehabilitation days. Said they would struggle to find somewhere/something to do in the community so that's why there was no community hours given x