Child molester's five-year jail term unaltered at appeal
A child molester will serve only a five-year jail term after top judges refused to up his punishment.
Solicitor-General Robert Buckland QC argued the sentence imposed on 48-year-old Paul Davies was far too soft.
Three Appeal Court judges accepted the jail term was "lenient" at a hearing yesterday – but refused to increase it.
Davies, of Hill Street, Llangollen, was handed his five-year sentence at Caernarfon Crown Court on June 3. He was convicted of two counts of indecent assault and two of indecency with a child.
The crimes took place in the 1980s, when Davies was 20 or 21 and his boy victim was aged just seven or eight, Lord Justice Treacy said. But it was not until years later that his victim finally felt able to tell his family.
The judge who jailed Davies said the abuse had a "lasting and severe impact" on his victim, who had suffered depression, anxiety, nightmares and suicidal thoughts.
Lord Justice Treacy said that "considerable time" had passed since Davies's crimes.
In the interim, Davies' record had "not been unblemished", but there had been no "further offending of a sexual nature".
The judge said that the five-year sentence was "lenient", but he was "not persuaded" that it was "unduly lenient". The judges said they would "not interfere" with Davies's sentence.
