Violent attack sentencing guides

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The Sentencing Guidelines Council (SGC), which is chaired by the most senior judge in England and Wales, will issue new rules on sentences for a number of violent assaults.

A consultation paper published by the SGC last summer said "happy slapping" - where assaults are filmed on video and distributed - would be a particularly serious aggravating factor leading to tougher sentences.

The paper was expected to introduce final recommendations based on last year's document, but it was unclear whether it would deal with the offence of attempted murder.

Last year the SGC said criminals convicted of attempted murder should serve as little as 40% of the sentence which would have been imposed if they had actually murdered someone.

In a case of attempted murder, the maximum discount from the sentence that would have been imposed for murder should be 60%, the paper said.

Currently, the Court of Appeal suggests a reduction of 50% in the most serious cases, it added.

It also said the starting point for sentencing an offence of assaulting a police officer should be 18 weeks' custody where an injury was caused, although it could go as low as a community order.

A "spontaneous" assault on a PC which caused no injury could be dealt with by a fine or a medium-length community order, it added.