Ulster Unionist East Antrim MLA John Stewart has written to the Director of Public Prosecutions asking for a review of the sentence handed out to a local youth football coach from Larne, who pleaded guilty at Antrim Crown Court to four counts of grooming and abusing an underage girl, and received a two-year jail sentence as a result.
John Stewart MLA said:
“Judicial decisions are quite rightly kept out of the political arena, but given the seriousness of this case, I have written to the Director of Public Prosecutions asking him to consider grounds for referring the leniency of the sentence to the Court of Appeal.
“It is difficult to think of a more disgusting crime than for someone to use a position of power and responsibility to prey on children for their own depraved sexual gratification. Children need to be protected and in the eyes of many people, a two-year custodial sentence is neither a sufficient punishment nor a deterrent.
“Judges who hand out custodial sentences have legislative guidelines they have to work within, but given the level of public disquiet at the short sentence which has been imposed in this particular case, I believe the DPP needs to look at it in the public interest.
“It is obviously in everyone’s interests that the public retain confidence in the judicial system, and for that to happen, courts need to hand out punishments that fit the crime. Many people in East Antrim do not believe that has happened in this case.”