Juliet Dunlop: Hall’s sentence sends out wrong message

Why they bothered, after all these years, to come forward and tell their stories. Why they relived the abuse, the touching-up, groping and humiliation they suffered as children and young women, at the hands of a predatory, all-powerful TV personality.

This week Hall, now a frail 83-year-old, was sentenced to 15 months in prison. He may serve as little as half of that. When you consider that he indecently assaulted 13 girls, it works out at a fortnight behind bars for each victim.

It’s even more meaningless when you consider that the abuse spanned 18 years.

Understandably, his victims – now women trying to get on with their lives – are devastated. One said she was “dumbfounded”, describing it as a “slap on the wrist.” Another victim said: “It’s not justice. It’s not showing that we’re not going to tolerate this kind of thing anymore.”

And she’s right – on both counts. At the time the offences took place, in the 1970s and 1980s, the maximum sentence for the crimes Hall committed was five years. Today, he could have been given a ten-year sentence. Now, only after days of criticism from victims and charities, the Attorney General is to examine whether the sentence was unduly lenient. But the damage has already been done; the brave women who went to the police now feel cheated and men like Hall can rest easier in their beds. The message seems to be that if you are caught, if you are old and if the abuse is “historical”, you won’t be in prison for long.

The case of Hall and the leniency with which he has been treated, takes on a greater significance when it is viewed alongside society’s attitude to sexual violence and child pornography. How we deal with sexual crime is a problem for all of us. This week alone new figures revealed a disturbing rise in sex crimes in Scotland. The number of reported cases of rape soared by 16 per cent last year to 1,372 – an all-time high.

The justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, has been quick to link the rise to more victims coming forward, particularly in the wake of Jimmy Savile and Hall. But while Rape Crisis Scotland acknowledges that the police have taken steps to make it easier for women – for it is mainly women – to report rape and attempted rape, the charity also believes the increase could be down to more crimes taking place. Attitudes may well have changed since Hall’s heyday, but it doesn’t mean fewer crimes are being committed.

The picture grows darker still when we look at the significant increase in cases relating to indecent images of children being taken, distributed or possessed. It is impossible not to view this last fact without mentioning two recent murder cases. Mark Bridger, who was sentenced to life for the murder of five-year-old April Jones, regularly trawled the internet for images of child abuse and rape. Similarly, Stuart Hazell, who was jailed for murdering 12-year-old Tia Sharp, collected hard-core pornography featuring young girls. Both crimes were committed by deeply disturbed individuals, but their terrible actions may well have been fed if not fuelled by, the readily available stream of sexually explicit, violent material they accessed.

Earlier this week, companies including Google and Microsoft agreed to give the Internet Watch Foundation more powers to clamp down on abusive images. Analysts will be employed to find and block pictures of child abuse as part of the agreement and internet providers will fund the move to the tune of £1 million over four years. It isn’t much when you think about the scale of the problem. And while the main agency dealing with illegal images, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop), has an annual budget of £6m, it’s still underfunded. It’s a war we’re in danger of losing.

So, while some people may feel sorry for Hall and think he’s been punished enough, they should remember how many young women he assaulted with impunity.

The message that his 15-month sentence sends out is wrong. Given the rising tide of sexual crime we are battling, Hall and others like him, deserve more  than a slap on the wrist.