Summary
At the time of his offending, our client was nineteen and was charged with three counts relating to inciting and attempting to engage in sexual activity with a child. Our client suffered from various mental illnesses and vulnerabilities. However, he accepted the charges against him and pleaded guilty to all three offences.
The charges were in relation to text messages where our client knowingly engaged in sexual conversation with and attempted to engage in sexual activity with a girl aged fourteen. Partner Joanne Cestaro represented our client on this matter, where she instructed a psychological expert to assess our client’s vulnerabilities, in addition to collecting significant mitigation in attempt to reduce his sentence.
When sentenced at Luton Crown Court, thanks to our team’s excellent preparation and representations, our client avoided immediate imprisonment and instead suspended sentence orders were imposed in relation to all three counts.
Details of the Case
The conversation between our client and the victim took place online on a mobile application. The victim’s profile was controlled by an activist group that identify people who seek out children on the internet for the purposes of sexual gratification. Our client had arranged meet up with the victim and her ten-year-old sister to engage in sexual activity. On the day of this arranged meeting, he was arrested.
Joanne provided expert support and guidance to our client and his family throughout, making sure to act with sensitivity due to the nature of the case. For our client’s offences, the starting point for sentencing was three years, meaning he was at risk of serving a lengthy custodial sentence.
Joanne suspected that our client’s vulnerabilities greatly impacted his actions and similarly, she was concerned about the impact of a lengthy sentence on his already fragile state. Ahead of our client’s sentencing, Joanne instructed an expert to assess these concerns.
As part of her assessment, the expert explored:
- Whether our client’s vulnerabilities affected his judgement when committing the offences.
- Whether our client’s vulnerabilities impaired his ability to make rational choices when committing the offences
- Whether our client’s vulnerabilities impaired his ability to understand the nature and consequences of his actions when committing the offences.
- To what extent, if any, our client’s mental health would be impacted by a custodial sentence.
Alongside this report, Joanne collated extensive mitigation in relation to our client’s character, which was heavily supported by communications with both him and in particular his mother.
Court
Sentencing took place at Luton Crown Court, where our client was excellently represented by Barrister Anne Faul of Lamb Building. The evidence from the expert’s report, together with the mitigation provided a robust overview of our client’s vulnerabilities and how these affected his actions and behaviour.
Thanks to the strength of this mitigation, the Judge imposed a total suspended sentence of twenty-four months in relation to all three charges. Further penalties, such as Rehabilitation Activity Requirements, a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, Sexual Offences Register, and victim surcharge were also imposed.
Client Testimonial
Our client and his family were delighted with this outcome considering the length of the custodial sentence he was at risk of receiving. They were all very grateful to Joanne for her support and dedication in ensuring that our client’s vulnerabilities were taken into account when being sentenced:
‘Joanne Cestaro is just brilliant. Helped with my son and went above and beyond for him. She explained everything I didn’t understand and made sure we knew exactly what would happen.’
‘Barrister Anne Faul was equally as brilliant. No judgement from either and lovely friendly ladies and got the outcome we hoped for and assistance needed for my son, which is long overdue.’
‘Can’t recommend enough! Thank you, Jo and Anne.’
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