Summary
Our client was a young man arrested in relation to possession of indecent images from when he was a teenager. He accepted the allegations and accepted that his offending behaviour was inappropriate and wrong. Thanks to the strong mitigation provided to the police in our client’s defence, he was offered a conditional caution and avoided court proceedings entirely.
Details of the Case
Police were notified by the National Crime Agency that a device registered to our client’s IP address had uploaded multiple child sexual abuse images and videos online. After conducting a search of our client’s home, they seized two devices which were both found to contain a high number of indecent images of children.
Following the police search, our client instructed Managing Partner Nick Titchener on a privately funded basis to advise on early tactical steps that could be taken to mitigate his position now he was an adult and facing very severe consequences if convicted. A part of this Nick advised a two fold approach of early engagement with experts who were able to support him with psychological issues and to also draft a detailed mitigation statement for the police station interview.
At the point when then request was made to engage with police, our Police Station Representative Thomas Evans represented our client on a privately funded basis at the police station. Our client gave the carefully drafted prepared statement during his interview, where he accepted that he was the sole user and owner of the seized devices advancing early mitigation at the same time.
He stated that between the ages of 15-17, he was suffering with bad mental health and was searching for images of girls of a similar age to himself. He denied having any interest in viewing material of younger children and stated that any images of that nature would have been sent to him by others without his knowledge.
Our client accepted that his behaviour was wrong and was very ashamed to have engaged in such actions. Given that the images recovered included categories A-C, our client was at risk of a prison sentence ranging up to three years if convicted now that he was an adult.
Our Defence
Following the police station proceedings, our client continued to engage with Managing Partner Nick Titchener on a privately funded basis to engage in pre charge representations with the police. As part of this, Nick submitted extensive mitigation to the police to highlight our client’s vulnerability at the time of his offending behaviour regarding his age and neurodivergence.
As part of this mitigation, Nick drew attention to the fact that our client was also being groomed himself to send images to adults, that he took active steps to cease his offending prior to arrest and has taken subsequent steps to address offending behaviour through counselling and rehabilitation.
Nick asked the police to consider whether it was evidentially appropriate or in the public interest for our client to be prosecuted. Given that our client was a vulnerable youth at the time of his offending, now being an adult he would not benefit from the Youth Court sentencing provisions and would face much harsher penalties.
Outcome
After reviewing our client’s case in light of the extensive mitigation and evidence put forward by Nick, the CPS agreed to offer our client an out-of-court-disposal, namely a conditional caution, rather than charging the matter to court.
A conditional caution is not a criminal conviction, however it does require the individual to adhere to certain specified conditions. A benefit of receiving a conditional caution, other than avoiding court proceedings, is that there would be no requirement for our client to be placed on the sex offenders’ register.
This was an extremely rare but favorable outcome for our client. This fantastic result is a testament to Nick’s expertise and the strength of the mitigation presented on our client’s behalf.
Without Nick’s guidance, our client likely would have been subject to a crown court proceedings and a possible prison sentence and being on the Sex offenders register and subject to Notification requirements and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order. The conditional caution removed all of these consequences meaning or client was able to move on with his life.
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