Adobe StockA senior judge has raised fears that Scottish courts aren’t imposing severe enough punishments on criminals who strangle their victims, after a dad who choked his children was jailed for just 14 months.
The Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Beckett, said that offenders who choke victims should expect “severe punishment” for their conduct.
Scotland’s second most senior judge made the observations in a judgement issued on Friday by the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh.
He and his colleagues Lady Wise and Lord Clark were dealing with an appeal brought by prosecutors to the court.
Crown lawyers wanted the appeal judges to increase a jail term given to a 42-year-old offender who received a 14-month-long term earlier this year at Falkirk Sheriff Court.
The case concerned a dad, identified in legal documents as being called CC who subjected his young son and daughter between 2008 to 2024.
The court heard how the man strangled the two children during a campaign of abuse.
Prosecutors believed the sentence given to the man was too lenient in the circumstances.
The appeal court agreed and imposed a five and a half year sentence on the man.
However, in comments made in the judgement, Lord Beckett said courts need to deal with offenders who strangle their victims more harshly.
He wrote of how lawyers in the appeal had made submissions to the court about similar cases.
He wrote: “It is within ordinary human experience that compression of the airways, as happens in acts of strangulation, choking, compression etc, deprives the brain of oxygen and can have unpredictable and dangerous effects.
“From the sentences imposed in the cases cited to us, we are not certain that all judges have always recognised the full implications of such conduct.
“We consider that courts in Scotland, if they are not already doing so, must recognise the gravity of choking, strangling and neck compression generally, and similar conduct, and reflect its gravity in sentencing to deter conduct that is prevalent, insidious, harmful, often controlling and always extremely dangerous.
“Such conduct merits severe punishment.
“It is necessary to protect the public, and particularly women and children who are frequently the victims of such conduct from people who would perform such actions.”
The judgment does not name any of the people involved in the case. It tells of how the dad, who was called CC, physically abused his son DD and daughter EE.
Falkirk Sheriff Court heard how the attacks on DD started when he was aged around three to four years old and carried on until he was 18.
The court heard how he shouted and acted in an aggressive manner towards him during that time.
He also repeatedly punched and struck him on the head and body with his hands and knee and repeatedly kicked him to the head and body.
The court also heard how CC also seized hold of DD and seized him by the neck, all to his injury;
Falkirk Sheriff Court also heard how between January 2022 and February 2024, CC repeatedly attacked his daughter EE who was then aged between 11 and 13.
The court heard how he repeatedly shouted and screamed at her and pushed her on the body before throwing her to the ground.
He then dragged and pulled her along the ground before kicking her on the body and striking her head repeatedly against a couch. He also repeatedly seized her by the throat and restricted her breathing in assaults which were to her injury and danger of life.
The attacks took place in the Falkirk area.
Prosecutor Paul Harvey told the appeal judges that the sentence imposed on CC should have been harsher.
He said this was because of how young the children were at the time of the attacks and the “inherent seriousness” of the “repeated instances of manual strangulation” carried out. He said that in EE’s case this was to the danger of her life.
Lord Beckett and his colleagues agreed and increased the sentence given to CC.
He wrote: “We impose, in cumulo, a sentence of imprisonment for five years and six months.”
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