R v Hazrat Kharutti
[2024] EWCA Crim 377
R v Peter Sanderson
28 February 2023
[2023] EWCA Crim 859
Court of Appeal
A man was wrongly sentenced for online child sex offences. The court fixed the mistake, and gave him a shorter sentence because of a mix-up about the type of crime he committed. He still went to prison, but for less time.
Key Facts
- •Peter Sanderson (William Gardner) appealed a four-year sentence for four offences: attempting to cause or incite a female child under 13 to engage in sexual activity (lead offence), and three concurrent one-year sentences for attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.
- •Offences committed between March and May 2019 while on licence, using the KIK app to communicate with profiles he believed to be 12-13 year old girls.
- •Lead offence involved encouraging 'Natalie' (believed to be 12) to masturbate, sending her images and a video of himself masturbating, and soliciting sexual photographs.
- •Appellant's basis of plea: He accessed KIK without intent to contact minors and engaged in non-coercive dialogue, believing the girls were minors.
- •Previous convictions unrelated, most recent being a three-year sentence for fraud in 2017.
- •Pre-sentence and psychiatric reports indicated possible borderline and narcissistic personality disorders and later autism spectrum disorder, linked to sexual offending as a coping mechanism.
- •Initial prosecution mischaracterized the lead offence, leading to an incorrect sentencing guideline category.
- •The original sentence was deemed unlawful due to the prosecution's error.
Legal Principles
Sentencing guidelines for offences under section 8 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
Sentencing guideline for offences contrary to section 8 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003
Outcomes
The four-year sentence was quashed.
The sentence was unlawful due to the prosecution's mischaracterization of the lead offence, leading to the application of the incorrect sentencing guideline category.
A new sentence of two years and eight months' imprisonment was imposed for the lead offence.
The Court of Appeal recategorized the lead offence as 3A in the sentencing guidelines, considering the non-penetrative nature of the intended sexual activity but acknowledging significant grooming and solicitation of a sexual photograph. Aggravating and mitigating factors were considered, including the offence being committed while on licence, the appellant's mental health, and the guilty pleas.