September 2012 Victims of a convicted paedophile have revealed their anger after he escaped a jail sentence, despite admitting his crimes Leslie Arthur Davies, 75, who used to live in Walsall, admitted four historic cases of sexual assault – three involving offences against two children aged eight and ten. He was given a three-year community order, and placed on the sex offenders register for five years at Wolverhampton Crown Court. His victims called for his sentence to be increased – but the Attorney General’s office stood by the original judgement. One of them, now in their 20s, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: “He should have served at least two years behind bars for what he did to us. Now he’s walking around as a free man. It’s unbelievable.”  Police were alerted in January when one of the victims went to them. Another incident happened at a party when Davies groped a man in the mid-1990s. The victim said: “It disgusts me to know he wasn’t given any time in jail.” A spokesman from the Attorney General’s Office said: “The former Solicitor General, Edward Garnier QC MP, gave this case careful consideration. “He acknowledged the appalling nature of the offences and extended his sympathy to the family and the victims. “He took advice from an experienced and independent barrister not previously involved in the case with specialist knowledge of sentencing. He decided it would not be right to refer it to the Court of Appeal as he did not believe they would increase the sentence. “The Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme attracts a high threshold – there must have been a ‘gross error’ when the original sentence was imposed, or the sentence must be one that falls outside the range of sentences which a judge, applying his mind to all the relevant factors, could reasonably consider appropriate. “Mr Garnier did not believe that in this instance the necessary threshold for a referral was met.”