Perthshire Postie sentenced.

[SillyMoo]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...ntral-21880886

The latter comments just seemed like a slap in the face to the victims imo.

"He is a mature man and someone who, up until now, has been a net contributor to society," Mr Renucci added.

"He has been in full-time employment most of his adult life and has reached this stage with only one minor previous conviction.

"This is the first time he has ever been in custody."

So because he held down a job.....that makes it less horrific for the victims?

Sometimes I really despair of the human race and what people are capable of.

[Izzy]

I could be wrong here but I think this is what's known as Evidence of Character and Antecedents in English law , which is your past criminal
convictions etc. before sentencing.

[Casehardened]

Izzy is quite correct; it is appropriate and expected for defence counsel to enter a plea of mitigation citing previous good character for the judge to take into consideration before sentencing.(after all if he was of previous bad character you would then consider he deserved a heavier sentence)

[SillyMoo]

Well personally to me....since the rapes were 5 years apart.....I dont see that as proof of previous "good" character at all. To me it shows the opposite, proof of bad character.

I suppose I'm biased as I view rape as worse than murder (for me personally - i realise not everyone would agree). To me, rape is being subjected to lifelong torture, it only ends when you die. You can try and hide it, but you never truly forget and you're never truly the same person you were prior to being raped.

I honestly couldnt care if it was an actual saint. His previous actions do not make the crime any less heinous and it (offering character as mitigation) serves no actual purpose other than to reduce the sentence of the guilty.

[Casehardened]

Yes, I appreciate that you are coming from a different angle than I am and I obviously didn't hear the evidence that was presented to court, though I note from the link that you gave that the women only accused him of rape after chatting on facebook

However this is all bye the bye, the point is that counsel, whether prosecuting the defendant or defending him, must do their utmost for their clients, after all they are not the judge or jury and therefore should not presume guilt or innocence.

If found guilty it is right and proper to mitigate before sentence and of course the judge will ultimately decide whether to take any mitigation into account when passing sentence.

In this particular case I suspect, from the length of the sentence, that he did not.