Paedophiles win reduced jail terms

James Rennie was among several sex offenders who had their sentences cut yesterday.

Rennie, 40, abused a boy from the age of three months and “offered” him to others with whom he conspired to commit sexual offences against children.

He and a second man, Neil Strachan, 43, were both given life sentences following a lengthy trial in 2009 and ordered to serve at least 13 and 16 years respectively before they could apply for parole.

However, changes to the way the minimum terms are calculated in such cases were introduced by a controversial appeal court ruling earlier this year. The outcome has been a general reduction in what is known as the “punishment part” of an order for lifelong restriction (OLR). In May, Strachan’s term was cut to nine years.

After seeing Rennie also benefit from the ruling, the mother of his young victim said she had been prepared for the reduction, in light of the new system and Strachan’s earlier appeal. She said: “It is some comfort to know, as the judges stressed, that release is not automatic after the period has been served.”

She added: “We always think of it in terms of our son’s age. Now, we will have to recalculate when we are going to have to deal with the possibility that these people will be out.

“He would have been 18 [under Rennie’s original tariff] and now it could be when he is 13 or 14, if they are ever released.”

Her husband said: “We have concerns that someone convicted of these offences will likely reoffend. It could be four and a half years sooner that Mr Rennie could now attempt to reoffend. Strachan could be seven years. It might be somebody else’s child.”

Justice secretary Kenny Mac-Askill said he intended to bring forward changes to the law before the end of this year “to address the issues raised in the judgment”.

He said: “We of course respect the independence of the courts – but I am aware that many people will be concerned that the minimum punishment sentences in these cases have been reduced.”

Rennie, of Marionville Road, Edinburgh, was chief executive of LGBT Youth Scotland, which supports and counsels young people with sexuality difficulties, when he abused the boy and plotted with other paedophiles via the internet.

Rennie was a friend of the boy’s parents and had been trusted to babysit. He took photographs and videos of the abuse, and passed them on to others. One one occasion, another of the gang listened on the phone to Rennie’s indecency towards the boy, and spoke to the youngster as it was happening.

Six other members of the ring were jailed for between two and 17 years. The police inquiry had identified up to 70 contacts throughout the UK and abroad. It began in late 2007 after images of child pornography were discovered on a computer used by Strachan, of Duff Street, Edinburgh, in his job as an engineer.

In separate cases at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh yesterday, three other sex offenders had OLR punishment parts reduced, from seven years to four years, from eight years to four years and eight months, and from four years and two months to three years.

The new formula was introduced in March during appeals by Robert Foye, 32, who raped a girl in Cumbernauld while on the run from an open prison, and Morris Petch, 54, of Edinburgh, a child abuser and rapist.

The appeal court laid down a three-stage approach. First, a sentencing judge had to assess what would have been the determinate sentence if an OLR were not imposed in the case. From that, the element of the sentence that would have been for the protection of the public had to be removed because it was already built in to an OLR.

Finally, the remaining number of years had to be halved, to recognise that under a determinate sentence a prisoner would be eligible for parole at the halfway stage. Before the ruling, Foye had received a punishment part of nine years. Applying the new approach, it was halved. Petch had been told originally he would serve a minimum of 12 years, but it was cut to eight years.