Child rape sentences 'too lenient'

Attorney General Baroness Scotland argued that two-year terms passed in separate cases on window cleaner Keith Fenn, whose victim was a 10-year-old, and on chef Simon Foster, who raped a girl aged 12, should not be allowed to stand.

She told three Court of Appeal judges in London: "The message must be that sexual activity with girls of ten and twelve will not be tolerated."

Fenn, 24, was sentenced in June at Oxford Crown Court by Judge Julian Hall after pleading guilty to two charges of rape.

Because of the amount of time he has already spent in prison awaiting sentence, Fenn, of Blackbird Leys, Oxford, has a release date of October 19.

Lord Justice Latham, Mr Justice Stanley Burnton, and Mr Justice Pitchford, were told on Fenn's behalf that he had "genuinely" believed the girl was 16.

Simon Foster, 26, of Brittania Avenue, Dartmouth, Devon, was jailed at Exeter Crown Court in June by Judge Jeffery Rucker after he admitted a series of sexual offences against a 12-year-old girl, including two counts of rape.

The pair met on the internet, and then on three occasions on Teignmouth seafront in south Devon. The girl told him she was 15.

Baroness Scotland told the appeal judges her concern was that in both cases "too great a discount has been afforded to the offenders by the judges who sentenced them, for the ostensible consent of the victim and the offenders' belief as to the victim's age".

She said: "The sentences of two years' imprisonment passed in these cases fall so far outside the Sentencing Guideline Council's eight to 13 years as to be properly regarded as an unduly lenient sentence. Custodial terms of that length do not sufficiently punish the offender for the harm that he has caused, nor protect young girls and it does not deter as these sentences for this sort of offence must."