[2008] EWCA Crim 1059

Although a custodial sentence on a 12-year-old boy was not necessarily wrong in principle for an offence of sexual assault, a four-year sentence of detention in a young offender institution was manifestly excessive where the offence was attributable to appalling life experiences for which he could bear no personal responsibility. The sentence was quashed and replaced by a three-year supervision order in a structured environment with long-term exposure to programmes designed to probe and remedy his development towards a conventional maturity.

CA (Crim Div) (Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers LCJ, Pitchford J, Dobbs J)

21/04/2008