July 10, 2006 9:17 a.m. EST
Jacob Cherian - All Headline News Staff Writer
Washington, DC (AHN) - Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, is likely to
keep the minimum sentence for a man who sexually abused a
three-year-old girl. Pedophile Craig Sweeney, 24, was sentenced to
life. However, he can apply for parole after 5 years and 108 days.
Goldsmith is expected not to ask the Court of Appeal to revise the
case, saying that it's not "unduly lenient."
However, the family members of the case have called this "an insult."
Speaking after the sentencing of Sweeney in June, spokesperson for the
family, Ann Tyson said they believed there were "grave failings in the
criminal justice system that need to be urgently addressed."
Goldsmith presumably sees the case as not unduly lenient owing to the
fact that the trial judge has followed all the guidelines for coming up
with Sweeney's sentence.
Nevertheless, the family of the victim told BBC news that they hoped
the intervention by Home Secretary John Reid would lead to "a
significant increase in the sentence" and that it would serve as "a
benchmark for punishing the perpetrators of these horrific crimes in
the future."
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