1. WARNING: The provisions of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992 apply to the offences in this case. Under those provisions, where a sexual offence has been committed against a person, no matter relating to that person shall, during that person’s lifetime, be included in any publication if it is likely to lead members of the public to identify that person as the victim of that offence. This prohibition applies unless waived or lifted in accordance with section 3 of the Act.
   Background
2. Mr Whittaker, you fall to be sentenced for two serious sexual offences against a
   young boy. You entered guilty pleas to these offences on 25th October, shortly
   before your trial that was due to take place on 4th November 2024. You had
   originally entered not guilty pleas and had served a defence statement in which
   you denied the offences and put forward an account that suggested the victim
   in this case was lying for financial gain. You had also denied the offences when
   interviewed by the police. Nonetheless you now accept your guilt, and you will
   receive the appropriate credit for your guilty pleas.
3. The offences took place sometime between 1st January 1999 and 31st December
4. The victim was [anonymised], born on the 27th September 1993 and who
   was aged 6 years at the time of the offending.
5. The maximum sentence for rape on count 1 is life imprisonment. Count 2 under
   the law now would be considered to be oral rape and would also carry a
   maximum of life imprisonment but the maximum sentence for the offence you have pleaded guilty to was 10 years at that time and I am limited by that maximum.
6. I have had the benefit of a Prosecution note on sentence dated 10th November
   2024 and a defence note dated 11th November 2024. I consider a PSR to be
   unnecessary in this case as you are currently serving a long sentence for similar
   offending and the sentence I must impose will inevitably be a further lengthy
   custodial sentence. I have also seen a letter that you have addressed to me, 3
   character references and some medical notes concerning your health
   conditions.
7. The case was fully opened and I heard full mitigation on 12th November 2024
   but due to a lack of court time and to allow me to fully consider the matter I
   reserved sentence until today.
   Facts
8. The facts have been fully set out by the prosecution in court and in the detailed
   sentencing note and I need not recite them in detail. In short, you were the
   vicar at St John the Baptist Church, Sedlescombe in East Sussex. You
   befriended the victim’s grandmother. You baptised the victim and he was often
   left in your care as a child. On one occasion when he was 6 yrs old you took him
   to the vestry in the church and raped him anally and orally. Not unsurprisingly
   the victim was terrified and did not know what was happening to him and
   suffered intense pain. You told him not to tell his grandmother as it would be
   your little secret.
   Victim personal statement
9. The victim made a VPS after you pleaded guilty. It is dated 8th November
   2024 and it is on the CCDCS at T2. It was not read out in court at the victim’s
   request. Not because he was embarrassed about the personal and difficult
   matters contained within it but because he wanted to protect his mother from
   it’s contents. I respect his decision and will not refer to much of what the
   statement contains but I can assure him that I have read it and have taken it
   into account. It was a difficult read. Your offending has obviously had a very
   serious and long-lasting impact on his life which included a determined
   attempt to take his own life in 2019. Even now he still suffers with mental
   health issues and has suffered flashbacks. It has also had a significant impact
   on his personal relationships. He is still only 31 years old.
   Other convictions
   
10. These offences came to light following your conviction in 2018 for a series of
    serious sexual offences against a boy aged between 10 to 14 years at the same
    church. They were not your first convictions. Those were in 2008 for other
    offences against two young boys at a different church in Wellingborough. In
    respect of the 2008 convictions you received a total of 5 years imprisonment.
    In respect of the 2018 offences you were sentenced to an extended sentence
    of 16 years. It is that sentence that you are currently serving. The offences
    included what would now be considered anal and oral rape. The prosecution
    has fully set out the facts of those offences in the sentencing note and the
    offending was very serious indeed.
11. You are now 80 years of age.
    Sentencing guidelines
12. The P have set out the relevant starting points in the sentencing note. As far as the rape is concerned the relevant guideline is that for rape of a child under 13.
13. As far as harm is concerned both P and D say that this is category 2 offending
    (severe psychological harm and the child particularly vulnerable because of
    his extreme youth and personal circumstances). The P submit that because
    of your previous offending that aggravates harm into category 1. Your
    advocate argued that would be inappropriate.
14. As far as culpability is concerned the P submits this is category A – abuse of
    trust. Your advocate argued that there was no abuse of trust for the reasons
    set out in her note. I reject that submission. This was an egregious abuse of
    trust. The victim’s grandmother plainly trusted you implicitly and left him in
    your care. She was entitled to assume that you would protect him from harm
    not expose him to it in the most depraved way. In my view, there was also an
    element of deliberate isolation in the way that you separated him from his
    sister.
15. The appropriate starting point in the guidelines is a matter for me. To reflect
    totality I will sentence all of the offending on count 1, and I take the view that
    the correct starting point for this offence is, in fact, category 1A. The
    combination of the serious psychological harm and the extreme youth of the
    victim and his personal circumstances elevates this to a category 1A offence.
16. The starting point is, therefore, 16 yrs with a range of 13 to 19 yrs. The same
    applies to count 2 but obviously I have to have regard to the fact that, at that
    time the offence was not considered to be rape and the maximum sentence
    was 10 yrs imprisonment.
    

Aggravating features

16. The aggravating features are these (I accept there will be some overlap and I am conscious that I should not “double count”):
    a. Whilst you did not have any previous convictions at the time of the
    commission of these offences you had plainly been committing sexual
    offences against young boys for a considerable period of time and the
    offences that I am dealing with were the last in that series of offending;
    b. Specific targeting of a particularly vulnerable child;
    c. Location and timing of the offence – when the victim was left with you in a church;
    d. Steps to prevent the victim reporting the abuse but telling him not to tell his grandmother;
    Mitigation
17. Mitigating factors:
    a. limited remorse;
    b. I have read the character statements about your positive good
    character but also have regard to what is said in the sentencing
    guideline about this issue, namely, “Previous good
    character/exemplary conduct is different from having no previous
    convictions. The more serious the offence, the less the weight which
    should normally be attributed to this factor. Where previous good
    character/exemplary conduct has been used to facilitate the offence,
    this mitigation should not normally be allowed and such conduct
    may constitute an aggravating factor. In the context of this offence,
    previous good character/exemplary conduct should not normally be
    given any significant weight and will not normally justify a
    reduction in what would otherwise be the appropriate sentence”.
    c. You are now 80 and are said to be in poor health.
    Dangerousness
18. I must consider the statutory issue of dangerousness, but it is somewhat
    academic in this case because I cannot pass a determinate sentence. This is
    because you are considered in law to be an “offender of particular concern” as
    the offences involve the penetration of a child under 13 yrs. That means I would
    have to pass an extended sentence with at least one year extension whether you
    meet the statutory criteria of dangerousness or not.
19. Also, because of the dates of the offences you are not eligible for a discretionary
    “dangerousness life sentence”. Furthermore, the “two-strikes” provisions that
    would require to me to pass a life sentence do not apply.
20. However, I am required to consider whether I should impose a common law
    discretionary life sentence. There is a two-stage test when considering the
    imposition of a common law discretionary life sentence: The offender must have been convicted of a very serious offence sufficiently grave to warrant a substantive sentence; and There must be good grounds for believing that the offender may remain a serious danger to the public for a period which cannot be reliably estimated at the date of sentence.
21. This test was confirmed in the case of R v DP [2013] EWCA Crim 1143
    (CCDCS X3) upon which I sought submissions at the sentencing hearing. That
    confirmed that where a sex offender had been convicted of a very serious sexual
    offence against a child and he might remain a serious danger for the public for
    a period that could not be reliably estimated at the time of sentence then a
    discretionary life sentence was appropriate.
22. Your counsel accepted that the first test was met. However, she submitted that
    because of your age and ill health you are likely to die in prison and therefore
    could not present a risk to anyone and so would not present a serious danger to
    the public. I cannot accept that submission as I have not received any medical
    evidence that suggests that you have for example any terminal illness. I have
    been provided with some medical notes that show that you have a number of
    medical conditions but it appears to me that they are all being appropriately
    treated whilst you are in prison. In respect of the sentence you are currently
    serving you will be eligible for parole in about 4 years so it does not follow that
    you will never be released from prison.
23. The fact is that you have been convicted of a series of very serious sexual
    offences against children over a significant period of time that has culminated
    in the anal and oral rape of a 6 yr old boy that had been left in your care. This
    offending is of the most serious kind.
24. Applying the tests for a discretionary common law life sentence. Plainly these
    are very serious offences and there are, in my judgment, good grounds for
    believing that you remain a serious danger to young children for a period which
    cannot be reliably estimated today. You have been responsible for committing
    serious sexual offences against 4 young boys over a long period whilst abusing
    your position as a trusted member of the community as a vicar. You are, as the offender in the case of DP was considered to be, a predatory paedophile and have been for many years. I doubt that you will ever cease to be a serious danger to young boys but that risk cannot be reliably estimated at this time.

25. It means that both tests are met. I recognise that a discretionary life sentence
    should only be passed in the most exceptional circumstances. However, I am
    also conscious of the fact that since the abolition of indeterminate sentences for
    public protection discretionary life sentences may be appropriate where a case
    might not be wholly met by the extended sentence scheme.
26. I have considered whether an extended sentence would meet the risk that you
    pose. However, because of the particular circumstances in which these offences
    have come to be sentenced and the fact that the maximum extension to any
    sentence I impose is only 8 yrs then I have decided that an extended sentence
    will not be sufficient to protect the public from serious harm from you.
27. In my judgment, the combination of offences is so serious that only custody can
    be justified and for the reasons that I have already given the appropriate
    sentence in this case, on count 1, is a sentence of life imprisonment.
28. I will turn to the minimum term for this sentence shortly.
29. In relation to count 2 I must have regard to the different sentencing regime at
    the time and the different maximum sentence. Taking into account the
    aggravating and mitigating factors the shortest period of imprisonment
    commensurate with the seriousness of the offending on count 2 is 8 yrs. I have
    listened carefully to the submissions of your counsel on the amount of credit
    you should get for your guilty plea. It came late, just a few weeks before your
    trial but I accept that this meant that the victim did not have to give evidence
    which would, no doubt, have been very traumatic for him. Had you pleaded
    guilty at the PTPH you would have been entitled to 25% credit. At trial you
    would have received 10% so in your case the credit must be somewhere between
    those figures. I have come to the conclusion that the appropriate reduction
    should be half the maximum credit or a 1/6th reduction. This is slightly higher
    than I would normally allow but reflects the fact that the victim did not have to
    give evidence.
30. It follows that the sentence on count 2 will be 6 years and 8 mths to reflect credit and will be concurrent to count 1.
31. On count 1 I must set the minimum term. Your counsel submitted that had this case been dealt with at the time of your last conviction in 2018 it would not have added a great deal to that sentence. I cannot accept that submission. Plainly the court in 2018 considered that offending to be exceptionally serious yet that involved children that were significantly older than the victim in this case. I am quite sure that the court would have considered a discretionary life sentence on that occasion.

32. Taking into account the aggravating and mitigating factors the shortest period of imprisonment commensurate with the seriousness of the offending on count 1 is 18 yrs. That is reduced to 15 yrs because of your guilty plea.
33. I must also make an adjustment for totality in accordance with the Totality
    Guideline to reflect that you are already serving a long sentence for similar
    offending and, doing the best I can to reflect that, I will reduce the sentence
    further to one of 12 yrs.
34. Because you would have served up to two-thirds of that sentence in custody I
    fix the minimum term which you will serve at two-thirds of 12 years: that is 8
    years which will be concurrent to the sentence that you are serving. Because of
    that fact I cannot reduce the minimum term any further to reflect the time that
    you have spent in custody awaiting sentence.
35. This means that the minimum term which you will serve before the Parole
    Board may consider your possible release is one of 8 yrs. It is most important
    that you and everyone concerned with this case should understand what this
    means. The minimum term is not a fixed term after which you will
    automatically be released but is the term that must be served before the Parole
    Board can undertake their first review of the case. They will review the risk that
    you then present and will consider whether you can properly be released from
    custody subject to licence at that stage and if so on what terms. If and when you
    are released you will be subject to licence; and this will remain the case for the
    rest of your life. If for any reason your licence is revoked, you will be recalled to
    prison to continue to serve your life sentence in custody. It follows that unless
    and until the Parole Board consider that your release is appropriate then you
    will remain in custody.
36. You will be subject to the sexual offences notification requirements for life and will be disbarred from working with certain categories of person.
37. The statutory surcharge does not apply and I cannot award compensation as you do not have the means to pay any.
38. To summarise, Mr Whittaker, I pass a sentence of life imprisonment on count 1 with a minimum sentence of 8 years. On count 2, I pass a concurrent sentence of 6 years and 8 months.
    HHJ Lucie
    19th November 2024