Sex offenders
For some years I have campaigned for a sentence for sex offenders, which meant they could not be released until they could prove they didn’t represent a danger to the community, and had addressed to the satisfaction of experts, their offending behaviour.
The length of the life sentence imposed by His Honour Judge Peter Rook QC means that Richard Huckle may be released in 23 years’ time i.e. when he is 53 years of age because of the minimum life term ordered.
The BBC Reports:-“A British man has been given 22 life sentences after admitting 71 charges of sex abuse against children in Malaysia aged from six months to 12 years old.
Police believe Richard Huckle, 30, from Ashford, Kent, abused up to 200 children from mainly poor communities.
The Old Bailey judge described a 60-page paedophile manual Huckle wrote as a “truly evil document” and said he must serve at least 23 years in jail.
A woman in the public gallery shouted: “1,000 deaths is too good for you”.”
Whilst Huckle will have to apply for release at the end of his term and may have treatment in prison, he will not be compelled by the nature of the sentence to have some ameliorative treatment.
Indeterminate Sentences
The Labour Government introduced Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection to deal with the early release of sex offenders who still represented a danger to the public, and to counter adverse publicity which reported sex offenders committing further crimes upon release.
These types of sentence were relatively short lived, in that they arrived in 2005, and were abolished in 2012, not by a Labour Government but by an austerity driven, money saving Conservative Government. The cost of administering the treatment had proved too costly, which meant the sentences were a failure. As Wikipaedia says:-
“In 2007 the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court ruled that the continued incarceration of prisoners serving IPPs after tariff expiry where the prisons lack the facilities and courses required to assess their suitability for release was unlawful, bringing up concern that many dangerous offenders would be freed. In 2010 a joint report by the chief inspectors of prisons and probation concluded that IPP sentences were unsustainable with UK prison overcrowding“
It seems, therefore that sentencing policies, although meritorious floundered due to a lack of foresight, budgeting, and resource allocation to prisons, who were simply unable to provide the treatment ordered by the Court.
The particular issues with sex offenders are:-
- Paedophilia (literally translation from Ancient Greek is “love of children”), or rather the practise of abusing children is not a disease of the mind but rather a sexual preference, so it is not something that can be “cured” rather like alcoholism.
- Sex Offending can only be treated, like any mental disorder, if the patient is not in denial. Without consent, any treatment is useless and is doomed to fail.
- The most dangerous sex offenders are those that remain in denial, and believe that what they do is good for children, and should not even be classified as a crime.
- Whilst treatment can be invoked in prison, the usual attitude is steered towards persuading the prisoner that his/her behaviour needs correction. A more subtle approach is needed with sex offenders than main stream robbers, violent individuals, and murderers.
So this case, where the offender is unusually young, rather than the non-recent cases where the offender is likely to die in prison, poses particular problems because the offender is likely to fulfil his minimum life term and be eligible for release, when he may still pose a danger to the public, and perhaps after no treatment in prison.
The pressure is very much on not keeping people in prison, in view of the cost, and the need for the Ministry of Justice to save money, so will this policy persist in 2039 when Richard Huckle has completed his minimum life term?
You can listen to Peter’s interview on Radio 5 Live Breakfast here.
Peter Garsden is a specialist child abuse lawyer and president of the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers. You can contact him via email or call our helpline on 0845 604 7075.