Sex offender's sentence bid

Published on Friday 3 April 2009 21:31

A JUDGE was asked yesterday to give community service to a high-risk sex offender because jailing him would shorten his life.

Iain Munro, 20, of Aberdeenshire, has cystic fibrosis and his condition is especially difficult to manage, a court heard.

He is facing a prison term for abusing a four-year-old boy and has been assessed as a high risk, but his counsel, David Moggach, argued that a non-custodial sentence should be imposed.

Mr Moggach submitted a medical report on Munro from an expert in cystic fibrosis, and said: "It may have been expressed in delicate terms, but what I understand him to be saying is a custodial sentence will shorten an already-shortened life expectancy and it may even be a drastic shortening.

"That is a price he (Munro] should not be expected to pay, albeit he has been convicted of a serious offence."

The judge, Lord Kinclaven, said he wanted more information and continued the case until later this month, adding: "Today is not the time to take the very difficult decision of what the disposal in this case should be."

Munro, of Eigie Avenue, Balmedie, had been found guilty after a trial at the High Court in Aberdeen of indecently assaulting the boy while babysitting.