The sentence of an ex-GMP Trafford cadet leader who committed sexual assault on the teenagers for whom he was responsible was slashed to three years from five years.
Adnan Ali, from Old Trafford, went to the Court of Appeal after he was sentenced for a total of five counts of sexual assault and 15 counts of misconduct in a public office.
The trial before Judge Dennis Watson KC at Liverpool Crown Court heard how Ali, who was in his late 20s and his early 30s at the time of the incidents, committed sexual assault on the teenagers for whom he was responsible, both boys and girls, as well as sending a number of them inappropriate messages.
However, last month, his representatives told Dame Victoria Sharp, Mr Justice Joel Bennathan and Judge Guy Kearl at the Royal Courts of Justice these inappropriate messages were sent in a personal context rather than in a public context and were not so serious as to amount to an abuse of the public's trust.
They accepted all of the convictions for sexual assault but appealed against some of the convictions for misconduct in a public office as a result. They also appealed against the sentence.
In a ruling Dame Victoria, Mr Justice Bennathan and Judge Kearl threw out the appeal against some of the convictions for misconduct in a public office but allowed the appeal against the sentence. It was slashed to three years from five years.
The ruling said: "This was a complex sentencing exercise with an unusual combination of misconduct in public office offences and substantive statutory offences and the judge [Judge Watson] undertook it (as he did the trial itself) with commendable care and thoroughness. We respectfully differ however from the judge in one respect only in that we consider that the five-year term of imprisonment passed for the misconduct in public office offences was too long.
"In our view, a three-year term of imprisonment properly reflects the overall criminality involved in the two types of offending, as well as the importance of deterrence for offences of misconduct in public office."
This article was written by Jack Tooth. To contact him, email jack.tooth@newsquest.co.uk or follow @JTRTooth on Twitter.
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