Sentence 'unduly lenient'

First Edition

A husband, who had been given a suspended jail sentence last April for buggery offences against his wife over a six-year period, was sent to jail for four years by the Court of Appeal yesterday.

The judges, headed by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Taylor, held that the original nine-month suspended sentence on the man - who cannot be named to protect his wife's identity - was 'unduly lenient'.

Lord Taylor, sitting with Mr Justice Hutchison and Mr Justice Holland, said the sentence had been such that, if upheld, public confidence in criminal justice could not be maintained.

The sentence had been challenged by David Paget, counsel for the Attorney General, Sir Nicholas Lyell QC. He described the suspended jail term on the 31-year-old husband, from Reading, as 'wholly inappropriate'.

The husband was not in court to hear the decision.