Sex Attackers Have Sentences Doubled

23 May 2012, 15:19 | Updated: 23 May 2012, 15:27

21 year-old Roshane Channer and Ruben Monteiro, also 21, now face more than double their original jail term of 3 years 4 months for sexually attacking an 11 year-old girl in Luton.

Channer, of no fixed Address, and Monteiro formally of Luton, were originally given three years and four months in February after admitted raping the schoolgirl in a block of flats in Luton in July 2011.

Three judges at the Court of Appeal agreed with Attorney General Dominic Grieve QC the original terms of detention imposed at Luton Crown Court were "unduly lenient'' - and raised them to seven years.\

The pair will be on the sex offenders register for life.

The Attorney General said in a statement after the ruling: "The law is clear that children under the age of 13 are incapable of giving consent to sexual activity, and I hope that today's sentence sends out a strong message to anyone who commits terrible crimes such as these - that you can expect to spend a substantial time in prison.''

Baljit Ubhey, Chief Crown Prosecutor for Thames and Chiltern Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), welcomed the ruling from the Court of Appeal to increase the sentences. She said: "Roshane Channer and Ruben Monteiro took advantage of a very young girl and, although they pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, needed to be punished for their crime.

The original sentences of 40 months imprisonment in no way reflected the severity or seriousness of their crime. Today's increased sentences do.''

The two men, who were 20 at the time of the attack, maintained that they thought the girl was much older than 11.
They were charged with the rape of a child who could not in law consent to sexual intercourse, but they asserted she was a `willing participant', although Lord Justice Pitchford, announcing the decision of the court, said: "These offenders could not have thought that the complainant was older than 14 years of age.''