202501950 A5 - [2025] EWCA Crim 1047

On behalf of the Offender, Mr Stables submits, as he submitted to the Recorder, that a non-custodial disposal was appropriate and that the sentence imposed by the Recorder was not unduly lenient. He places considerable emphasis on the fact that the Recorder had the benefit of having the Offender before him on 7 occasions and that he had expressed on several occasions that he assessed the Offender’s remorse as being genuine. He endorses the Recorder’s description of the available mitigation as “immense” and that he was right to keep the prospects of rehabilitation firmly in mind at all times. He submits that this is not a case of grooming as usually understood; and he maintains that the Recorder was right to accept that Count 6 should be treated for the purpose of the Guideline as being a non-penetrative offence: there was no penetration although there would have been if the attempt had been successful.