16 Nov 2010

Supreme Court dismisses child sex offender's appeal

4:18 pm on 16 November 2010

The Supreme Court has thrown out a child sex offender's bid to get more time taken off his sentence for pleading guilty.

Raymond Hessell admitted nine charges of sexual offences against two girls aged under 16 just days before his trial two years ago.

He received a 10% sentence reduction for his late guilty plea and was jailed for two years and eight months, but went to the Court of Appeal asking for a bigger reduction.

That court said no and set out a sliding scale for judges to apply which took into account the time it took for the offender to plead guilty.

Hessell went to the Supreme Court which said the sliding scale was a departure from the Sentencing Act but dismissed his appeal, saying the 10% reduction was the right decision in his case.