• 7 years ago
• Posted in:Child Sexual Abuse, Possession of CSA images, Sexual Offences
• 0
• Author: melodie
• Tags: Aged 20-29, Appealed, Blamed gender ID, Child victim, Convicted 2017, England, Female victim, Gender issues cited as mitigation, Gillian Newley, Leicestershire, Mark Woodley, Multiple victims, Offended 2017, pre-GRS, Pre-transition, Sarbjeet Jagdev, Sentence reduced on appeal, Trans woman

Silhouette image via Wikimedia Commons

Sarbjeet Jagdev, a male who identifies as a trans woman, was convicted on seven counts of possessing indecent images of children at Leicester Crown Court in May 2017. 

Jagdev, 23, was jailed for three years after he was found to have viewed and stored 1,400 images and videos of very young girls being sexually abused.

Leicester Mercury reported in October 2017 that during a hearing at the Criminal Appeal Court in London, Jagdev’s defence team said that his confusion over his sexuality led him to view and store the images. The court also heard that Jagdev had sought counselling and therapy for his gender issues and compulsion to view child porn and that there was substantial evidence that he tried to address his offending behaviour.

The appeal court judges agreed that the trial judge had taken a sentence which was excessive as a starting point and therefore reduced Jagdev’s jail term to two years.

In another similar case, when suspending the 10 month sentence Graham/Gillian Newley received for possession 14,000 CSA images, the judge stated “I have some sympathy with the situation in which you find yourself and your confusion over your sexual identity and sexual matters generally.” The defence team had claimed Newley “wanted to “know what it would be like to be a female child as she missed out”.

In contrast, the judge in Mark Woodley‘s case (convicted of possessing over 2,000 CSA images in 2016) refused to suspend Woodley’s sentence, citing established prison procedures for protecting vulnerable prisoners and also questioning why gender identity issues would lead someone to view images of child sexual abuse. 

Media reports:

Leicester Mercury http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/pervert-wins-jail-sentence-cut-688023  archive