'Unduly lenient' sentence of rapist Sean Hogg to be appealed

The sentence of a man who was given community service after raping a 13-year-old girl was "unduly lenient" and should be appealed, the lord advocate has said.

Sean Hogg was 17 when he attacked the young victim in Dalkeith Country Park on a number of occasions in 2018.

Due to new sentencing guidelines for under 25s, he was not jailed and instead given 270 hours of unpaid work.

The lord advocate has now said the Crown should appeal the sentence.

Judge Lord Lake said if Hogg, now 21, had committed the crime when he was over 25, he would have given him a jail sentence of four or five years.

Kenny Donnelly, deputy Crown agent at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, said: "Sentence is quite rightly the domain of the independent judiciary.

"However, the law provides for some limited circumstances in which prosecutors have the right to appeal against sentences.

"The appeal court has set a high test to be satisfied for this to happen. The sentence must be unduly lenient, which means that it must be outwith the range of sentences which the sentencing judge, taking account of all relevant factors, could reasonably have imposed."

He added: "The question of Crown appeal against sentence in this case has been carefully considered and the decision to place this matter before the appeal court has been communicated to the complainer through her representative."

Aamer Anwar, the lawyer representing the victim, who is now 18, said she was "relieved" and grateful to the Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain, Scotland's senior law officer.

He said: "It has been nearly a month since Sean Hogg walked free from the High Court ordered to carry out 270 hours of unpaid work, after being convicted of rape.

"My client still does not understand why Hogg was allowed to get on with his life when he had ruined her, she wonders how many girls will think there is no point in reporting rape after seeing a rapist walk free.

"Whilst the police, prosecution and jury did its job, she feels that in the end she was failed by our justice system, but today once more she has some hope that justice will be done."

Apart from being given a community payback order, Hogg, from Hamilton in South Lanarkshire, was put under supervision and added to the sex offenders register for three years.

His victim previously released a statement detailing the effect the rape and subsequent sentencing had on her.

She was diagnosed with PTSD, suffered from panic attacks and self-harmed on a daily basis following the attacks. She also said she had undergone three years of counselling.

The teenager said CCTV was fitted in her home so she could see who was coming to her street and she would not leave the house without one of her grandparents.

She has suffered from anxiety and nightmares and has had relationship problems.

After the sentencing she said: "In my head I thought, he's going to come for me, he's going to want to hurt me.

"Why is it ok to rape anyone and not go to jail? Now it makes me think, why did I even bother reporting the rape in the first place. Nothing happened.

"I did not get justice, the system failed me, the judge failed me, he didn't protect me. I had done nothing wrong and yet he is a free man. You let him go, but gave me, the victim, a life sentence."

The sentencing drew criticism from rape victims and the Rape Crisis charity, while the case was discussed across the world.

The guidelines for sentencing under-25s were introduced in Scotland in January 2022.

They made rehabilitation rather than punishment a primary consideration, recommending an "individualistic approach" taking into account their life experiences.

Last week, First Minister Humza Yousaf said he believed those convicted of rape should go to prison but added that sentencing decisions had to be made by the courts.

During First Minister's Questions he said: "I agree with the sentiment that if someone commits rape they should go to jail but I also believe very firmly that it is up to judges and those in the high court to make a decision about what the appropriate punishment is for an individual for the crime that they have committed."

He added that the guidelines made it "very, very clear" that there was no bar on imposing a custodial sentence on a young person "where the judiciary consider that to be appropriate".

"But that must be a decision, not for the first minister, not for government ministers, neither for opposition colleagues - it is a decision, rightly, for the independent judiciary," he said.