Teenager's jail term is too short, says judge

A teenager who terrorised and tortured a family in their home was imprisoned for three and a half years on Tuesday by a judge who criticised the law for preventing him from passing a "proper" sentence.

Judge Michael Coombe described the attack, by Robert Davenport 18, and two accomplices aged 17, as one of the most "cowardly and degrading" he had ever had to punish.

The court was told how Davenport invited himself into the family's flat in Feltham, west London, and then called his friends to join him in assaulting and torturing the mother and father and their two children, who all had learning difficulties.

During the two-hour ordeal last November the teenagers sprayed pepper, shaving cream and bath cleaner into their victims' eyes. The father, aged 43, was slashed with a knife and forced to drink urine and eat faeces. The mother, aged 38, was forced to perform oral sex on her husband in view of their daughters, then aged 11 and 8. Even the dog was sprayed with hairspray with the intention of being set alight, and was repeatedly kicked.

Brendan Kelly, for the prosecution, said the motive for the abuse and torment was not clear "but it is suggested it was done either through boredom or sheer amusement".

At the Old Bailey yesterday Judge Coombe criticised the sentencing system, which "fettered" him from passing a longer sentence.He said the sentence was woefully inadequate for the offence, which he described "as cowardly a case of bullying that I can recall.

"It is quite beyond the pale of normal understanding. I have many years of experience on the bench and criminal bar and although I have been concerned in more serious cases such as murder, I cannot remember any quite so revolting and degrading as this one," the 71-year-old judge said.

Davenport, from Feltham, admitted conspiracy to assault, causing actual bodily harm, threatening to kill and incitement to steal. Judge Coombe also criticised the Crown Prosecution Service for not pursuing the indecency charge against Davenport, which might have enabled him to pass a longer sentence.

Wayne March and Nicholas Cooper, his co-defendants, were given maximum orders of 24 months detention and training last month. March had admitted causing actual bodily harm and Cooper was convicted of the same offence. Sentencing the pair, Judge Coombe warned that increasingly discretion was being removed from a judge's power.

The law prevents a defendant under 18 from qualifying for a term of more than two years unless they commit offences for which an adult would be given 14 years.

The children have now been placed in foster care.