A rape victim has condemned the judge at the centre of a sentencing row for allowing her attacker to walk out of court without a custodial sentence.
Judge Ian Lawrie KC sparked outrage after handing a restraining order to a teenager who repeatedly stabbed a girl in Cirencester.
Judge Lawrie told the 14-year-old, who attacked the girl after she refused to date him, that prison was “no place” for a “bright lad” like him.
The boy, who also injured a shopkeeper who tried to intervene during the attack, was also given a 12-month referral order.
The victim’s mother told LBC the sentence was “disgusting” and called on Judge Lawrie to be sacked.
Now, another victim, whose case was presided over by Judge Lawrie, has told LBC his ruling was “a joke” – and her rapist was given a “slap on the wrist”.
The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, was 17 when she was raped and sexually assaulted by Thomas Woodall at Hartpury College in Gloucestershire.
Woodall, who was 16 at the time of the attack and is 19 now, was sentenced as a minor by Judge Lawrie to 3 years in custody, suspended for 3 years.
He was also ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and to pay costs of £4,380 at Gloucester Crown Court last month.
“Being able to get out of prison time, as long as he doesn’t reoffend in three years, is a joke… it feels like a slap on the wrist. Do your job properly,” the woman told LBC.
In both cases, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) have said the sentences cannot be referred to the Court of Appeal through the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme.
Addressing Thomas Woodall’s sentence, an AGO spokesperson told LBC:
“The Solicitor General has concluded that this case cannot be referred to the Court of Appeal.
A referral under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme to the Court of Appeal can only be made if a sentence is not just lenient but unduly so, such that the sentencing judge made a gross error or imposed a sentence outside the range of sentences reasonably available in the circumstances of the offence.
The threshold is a high one, and the test was not met in this case.”
A spokesperson for the judiciary said: “Judges and magistrates sentence according to the law set by Parliament and the sentencing guidelines set by the independent Sentencing Council, as well as the facts of each case which may have aggravating or mitigating factors.”
