MP in vow for justice on child abuse images
An MP has said she won't give up when it comes to dealing with justice for online child abuse, after efforts to review a peadophile's 'pitiful' sentence were fruitless.
Dennis Igo, 53, of Bronington, near Whitchurch, was given a two-year suspended jail term after he admitted having over 250,000 images of children on his computer.
Slamming the sentence as pitiful, MP for Clywd South, Susan Elan Jones wrote to the Attorney General calling for him to review the lenient term.
But in a response, Attorney General, Dominic Grieve QC MP, stated: "As you are aware, the Solicitor General and I have the power to ask the Court of Appeal to review certain sentences which appear to us to be unduly lenient.
"However, this power only applies to sentences imposed for a limited number of offences which are specified in legislation.
"The offences for which Dennis Igo was sentenced for are not offences to which the legislation applies.
"It is therefore not possible for me to refer the sentence passed to the Court of Appeal for review."
Ms Jones said: "This is, of course, very disappointing. But when we were going though this process, I always made it clear that we did not know that we were going to be successful."
Igo had pleaded guilty to 16 charges, including making and possessing indecent images of children between the ages of five and 14.
The maximum jail term available to judges for possessing indecent images is five years, and for creating and distributing indecent images the maximum sentence is 10 years.
Igo, of Little Green, was given the suspended sentence at Mold Crown Court along with 300 hours of community service and had to pay £1,200 in legal costs.
But with no power to review the case, he will not receive a harsher sentence.
Ms Jones said: "While this is clearly not the result that the residents of Bronington or I would have wished for, it makes me all the more determined to present the residents' petition to Parliament and to pursue other avenues to try and get justice for the victims of online paedophiles."
"This may mean he does not receive a stricter sentence, but it will hopefully bring an outcome in terms of the whole issue of online child abuse offences.
"The internet is relatively new in the grand scheme of things, and I am sure that when it began no-one believed it would become a source of child abuse.
"I think now the law is going to have to develop."
Ms Jones now plans to take the petition, developed by residents of Bronington, to parliament when she is provided with a date.
She added: "His sentence was so unbelievably lenient, but this issue is not going away."
