January 2012 Sex attacker sees sentence appeal rejected A sex attacker who was jailed after sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl has lost his appeal against his eight-year prison sentence. Leon Thomas Hanley, aged 36, was locked up at Sheffield Crown Court last July after admitting three attacks on the girl, who was under the age of 13. He appealed against his sentence at London’s Court of Appeal, but watched via a video link from prison as three senior judges rejected his complaints. Lord Justice Pill said Hanley, of Park Road, Grimethorpe, Barnsley, claimed to have no memory at all of what he did, but accepted he must be guilty. Hanley’s legal team argued the eight-year sentence was ‘manifestly excessive’. But, rejecting the appeal, Lord Justice Pill said the sentence was ‘severe’ but not excessive.