The Attorney General should not refer Carrick’s sentence to the Court of Appeal

According to a YouGov poll nearly 60% of the population believe that the “minimum sentence of 30 years and 239 days” passed on David Carrick was too lenient. Only a contrarian 1% considered it too harsh.

The Attorney General’s office is said to have received “a stream of complaints” about the leniency of the sentence, and has announced that it is “reviewing” it.

The Times published a leading article arguing that Carrick should have received a “whole life” tariff; that is, life without the possibility of parole. Former Victims Commissioner Vera Baird KC has said that were she still Solicitor General, as she once was, she would “trigger a review of this as an unduly lenient sentence.” I am not entirely sure whether she means that she would actually refer the case to the Court of Appeal or just that she would have a long hard think about doing so.

So the current Attorney General is under some pressure to refer the case to the Court of Appeal, which would then have the power to increase it if it considered it “unduly lenient.” Continue reading “The Attorney General should not refer Carrick’s sentence to the Court of Appeal”