A man who was given a 270-hour community payback sentence for raping a 13-year-old girl in a park is to have his sentence appealed on the grounds it was “unduly lenient”, Scotland’s lord advocate has decided.
There was widespread outrage expressed by campaigners and politicians when Sean Hogg was not given a jail sentence when he appeared at the high court in Glasgow earlier this month.
Hogg, from Hamilton in South Lanarkshire, was 17 when he raped the girl in Dalkeith country park in 2018.
The judge, Lord Lake, said he took Hogg’s age into account when sentencing him and added that if the defendant had been over 25 when he committed the offence he would have imposed a four- or five-year jail sentence.
On Friday, it was announced that Scotland’s top law officer, the lord advocate, Dorothy Bain KC, had decided that the sentence should be appealed on the grounds it was too lenient.
The news was welcomed by Hogg’s victim. Speaking on her behalf, the solicitor Aamer Anwar said: “My client is relieved and grateful to the lord advocate – it has been nearly a month since Sean Hogg walked free from the high court, ordered to carry out 270 hours of unpaid work after being convicted of rape.
“My client still does not understand why Hogg was allowed to get on with his life when he had ruined hers. She wonders how many girls will think there is no point in reporting rape after seeing a rapist walk free.
“Whilst the police, prosecution and jury did its job, she feels that in the end she was failed by our justice system, but today once more she has some hope that justice will be done.”
Kenny Donnelly, deputy crown agent at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, said: “Sentence is quite rightly the domain of the independent judiciary. However, the law provides for some limited circumstances in which prosecutors have the right to appeal against sentences.
“The appeal court has set a high test to be satisfied for this to happen. The sentence must be unduly lenient, which means that it must be out with the range of sentences which the sentencing judge, taking account of all relevant factors, could reasonably have imposed.
“The question of crown appeal against sentence in this case has been carefully considered and the decision to place this matter before the appeal court has been communicated to the complainer through her representative.”
The community payback sentence was criticised by many, including Rape Crisis Scotland, which said in a statement it was shocked Hogg did not receive a custodial sentence.
“Given the gravity of this crime and the fact it was tried at the high court, this sentence appears to us to be worryingly lenient. Our thoughts are with the survivor of this crime.”
