Court says no to shorter sentence for sex offender

Tue, 31 Jan 2012

Douglas Courthouse

A sex offender has lost his appeal to have his prison sentence shortened.

Lewis Myles Bell was given a 7 year jail term last April after being found guilty of several counts of gross indecency with a child and indecent assault, against two girls aged 12 and 14.

The court heard that the younger victim had felt sick every day for two years after she was assaulted

The Deemster told the appeal that 7 years, the maximum sentence that can be given for these offences, was not excessive or wrong in principle.

The appeal judge said the Deemster who passed the original sentence could have passed down a consecutive sentence rather than a concurrent one, which would have seen Bell given a longer sentence in total.

As a result, the court dismissed the appeal.

Just two weeks earlier, Bell also lost an appeal against his convictions.