Crime

Sexual offences - register of offenders - extended licence period not counted when calculating applicable registration periodR v S: CA (Lord Woolf CJ, Rougier and Bell JJ): 25 July 2000

The defendant pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a female and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and a further two years' extended licence pursuant to s.58 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.

The judge ordered that the defendant should register under s.1 of the Sex Offenders Act 1997 for an indefinite period on the basis that his total sentence was four years' imprisonment.

The defendant appealed.

Nigel R Edwards (Registrar of Criminal Appeals) for the defendant.

Held, allowing the appeal in part, that neither the sentence of imprisonment nor the extended licence order were manifestly excessive; but that a period of extended licence imposed on a defendant pursuant to s.58 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 was not a term of imprisonment and, therefore, was not to be taken into account when calculating the period for which a defendant convicted of a sexual offence had to register under s.1 of the Sex Offenders Act 1997; and that, accordingly, the applicable period for which the defendant should register under s.1 of the 1997 Act was 10 years.