I was at the sentencing hearing for Sabine McNeill. I had read the sentencing guidelines for the offence, so I knew what she could potentially face. What a lay person doesn't have is access to are the pre-sentencing reports that will determine the aggravating or mitigating factors, so it is true that whilst I was hoping for the high end of the sentencing scale, I was erring on the side of thinking it would be a lower sentence because I didn't have access to what the judge had.SpearGrass wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 7:45 pm On a related note, it's interesting that every time a harrassing troll gets a custodial sentence out of the sentencing guidelines (McNeill and now Bellfield) people (both supporters and critics) are surprised. People really have no idea how courts sentence, and I don't think some of them want to as it would take away something they want to say.
However, post sentence it should be quite clear why they got what they got and in Sabine McNeill's case we got a good breakdown by the Court of Appeal.
"In all the circumstances, we consider that the sentence passed on the appellant was, if anything, a lenient sentence. By no stretch of the imagination can it be described as manifestly excessive. This appeal is entirely without merit and accordingly will be dismissed."
https://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format.c ... /1566.html