Sex predator is granted right to fight sentence
A FORMER soldier left with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after serving in Afghanistan has been given permission to challenge his sentence for sexually assaulting three women.
Joshua Jolly attacked the women as they walked alone at night or in the early hours of the morning, approaching them from behind, pulling them to the ground, and assaulting them.
A judge said the attacks had been “every woman’s worst nightmare” and made the paratrooper the subject of a 22-year extended sentence comprising 16 years in prison and six years on post-release licence.
But now the Court of Appeal has granted him permission to try to get the sentence reduced.
Married serviceman Jolly preyed on women walking the streets of Cardiff between February 2018 and April this year.
The first attack happened in the hours of February 11 last year when he came upon a woman walking in the Penylan area. The woman – who is in her 20s – had been out with friends in the city centre when she became aware of a car following her.
Moments later Jolly took her to the ground, sat on top of her, put one hand over her mouth and forced his other hand down her jeans and underwear.
The victim lost consciousness during the attack, and came round to find her possessions scattered over the floor. Police were alerted, and DNA matching Jolly was found underneath her fingernails.
The second incident happened on the night of October 30 last year when Jolly again approached a woman in her 20s as she walked alone, this time near the Cineworld cinema in the city centre – again he dragged her to the floor and sexually assaulted her.
The third attack happened just after 5am on April 6 this year when Jolly followed a woman in her 30s walking to work along Ninian Park Road – he grabbed her in a choke hold, took her to the floor and sexually assaulted her.
Police CCTV inquiries led officers to a blue Volvo car registered to Jolly’s wife.
He was arrested on April 12, and police seized his blood stained jacket - forensic examination linked the coat to the latest victim.
In his interviews he denied attacking the women, but said he had been in Cardiff looking for prostitutes because he had a “high sex drive”.
Jolly, 27, of Collwyn Street in Coedely, Tonyrefail, pleaded guilty to sexual assault, assault with intent to commit a sexual offence, two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and two counts of assault by penetration when he appeared in the dock at Cardiff Crown Court in July.
At the sentencing hearing Jolly’s barrister, Byron Broadstock, said his client had had an “unhappy childhood”, and had gone on to serve on the frontline in Afghanistan where he witnessed “extremely harrowing acts of violence” which had left him with PTSD.
Sending Jolly down, judge Eleri Rees told the defendant he had “targeted” the women and used violence to sexually assault them. She said there was no doubt the impact of what he had done would remain with his victims for “a very considerable time, if not throughout their lives.”
The judge said she was satisfied he should be considered a dangerous offender under the terms of the relevant legislation, and passed a 22-year extended sentence.
Jolly’s barrister was back in court on his behalf yesterday when the Court of Appeal sat at Swansea Crown Court.
Mr Broadstock argued before Lord Justice Hickinbottom, Mr Justice Lewis and Mr Justice Jacobs that the sentence imposed on his client was “manifestly excessive”. He asked the judges to put aside their “obvious revulsion” at the acts committed by Jolly and to find that insufficient weight had been given to the defendant’s PTSD.
The barrister said “through no fault of his own” Jolly had been left suffering with the condition.
He said the report into the defendant’s mental health issues before sentencing judge in July had looked primarily at the risk of re-offending in the future, rather than how the PTSD had led to the offending in the first place.
Mr Broadstock invited the judges to grant leave to appeal against the length of the sentence. Delivering their finding, Mr Justice Lewis said the ruling that Jolly was a dangerous offending was not being challenged, the sole ground of appeal was that the sentence was “manifestly excessive” given the defendant’s guilty pleas, his lack of previous convictions, his remorse, his service in the Army, and his diagnosis with PTSD.
The judge said he and his brother judges were satisfied the ground being put forward was “arguable”, and therefore granted the defendant the right to appeal against the length of the sentence.
He also ordered that a new psychiatric report be done looking at the relationship between PTSD and the offences committed.