2,000 sex criminals spared jail – and ALL of them reoffended
MORE than 2,000 sex offenders who were spared jail in the past five years went on to commit similar sickening crimes.
Official figures reveal that 2,026 sex offenders in England and Wales who were convicted between 2014 and 2018 had previously escaped a prison sentence for a sex crime. They include 389 cases in 2018 – an average of more than one a day.
The statistics, released by the Ministry of Justice following questions from former Cabinet Minister Priti Patel, have raised fresh concerns that victims are being let down.
Harry Fletcher, of the Victims’ Rights Campaign, said: ‘ This is undermining the confidence of victims in the justice system. The courts seem to be avoiding jail because they are full and dangerous. There are many instances of people who download serious indecent images of children receiving suspended sentences, only to repeat this behaviour.’
The shocking figures come days after official Home Office figures showed sex attacks increased by 14 per cent in the year to September. Only 7.5 per cent of reported sex crimes resulted in charges.
Numerous examples of the soft justice scandal include Rhys MillerOffiong, who was given a suspended s entence i n 2017 f or grooming a girl under 16 to engage in sexual activity. Three months later, he raped a woman.
Woolwich Crown Court heard how the 24-year-old – who was jailed for 15 years in December – created fake social media profiles to lure women into sending him explicit photographs so he could blackmail them into performing sex acts.
In another case, Kevin Hollingshead was spared jail for persuading children to play ‘strip Twister’ and for downloading hundreds of extreme images in 2014. His barrister claimed that sending him to prison would prevent him being rehabilitated, telling the judge: ‘He would never repeat such actions.’
Within two years he was locked up for inciting a 13-year-old girl into sexual activity and distributing indecent images.
Lieutenant Colonel Mark Smyth was spared jail in 2013 for having 5,000 indecent pictures of children. But weeks later, the commanding officer in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers was caught taking pictures of little girls changing on a beach and later jailed.
And f ormer Sergeant Major Jonathan Sword received a suspended sentence in 2016 for having extreme pornography on his laptop. After that case, a girl came forward to say he had previously carried out a ‘terrifying’ sex attack on her, yet he escaped prison again last year.
Last night, Miss Patel said the figures should act as a ‘wake-up call’ for the Ministry of Justice, which is planning to scrap all prison sentences of under six months to ease pressure on overcrowded jails.
‘Simply avoiding sending criminals to jail in the first place will have huge repercussions for the public’s safety,’ she said.
‘This is undermining confidence in justice’