JUDGES DOUBLE RAPIST'S SENTENCE
A man named Paul Thornton from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, had his two-year prison sentence for raping a former girlfriend more than doubled to four-and-a-half years at the Court of Appeal in London yesterday.The three Judges, headed by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Lane, agreed with the Attorney General Sir Patrick Mayhew that the original sentence on Thornton, aged 31, was excessively and unduly lenient.
Thornton, who had a 20-month relationship with the 18-year-old victim, had raped her after he stripped her during a visit, despite her request to remain friends.
The victim was distressed and Thornton told her she would 'hate him' for the attack.
Thornton’s case was viewed as being at the lower end of the scale, but the Court of Appeal deemed the sentence outside the proper limits of judicial discretion, leading to the increase.
The decision was hailed by some as a victory against lenient sentences for such crimes, emphasizing the court's stance against leniency towards rapists.
