Man ‘too young’ for jail after raping 13-year-old to have ‘unduly lenient’ sentence appealed
A MAN who was deemed too young for jail after raping a 13-year-old girl is set to have his "unduly lenient" sentence appealed by the Crown.
Sean Hogg, 21, was sentenced earlier this month at the High Court in Glasgow after being found guilty of attacking the teen.
Hogg was 17 when he attacked the young victim in Dalkeith Country Park in Midlothian on a number of occasions in 2018.
But new sentencing guidelines for under 25s meant he was not sent to prison and instead given 270 hours of unpaid work.
He was also put under supervision and added to the sex offenders register for three years.
Last week, Hogg, of Hamilton, Lanarkshire, instructed his legal team to challenge his conviction.
But the Lord Advocate has decided that the Crown should appeal Hogg's sentence on the grounds that it is "unduly lenient".
Deputy Crown Agent for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service Kenny Donnelly 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.
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"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.
"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."
The case of Sean Hogg sparked anger when he was deemed too young to be jailed despite being found guilty of attacking the teenager.
Critics, including Harry Potter author JK Rowling, said it was appalling that anyone found guilty of rape should escape a prison sentence.
Judge Lord Lake said he had to take Hogg's age into account.
His victim, who is anonymous to protect her identity, spoke out about how the rape and the subsequent sentence has affected her.
In a statement, she said she was diagnosed with PTSD, suffered from panic attacks and self-harmed on a daily basis following the attacks.
The teenager, now 18, said CCTV was fitted in her home so she could see who was coming into 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.
She said: "The day my grandmother told me Sean Hogg had been found guilty of rape I thought there may be a chance of being happy again. I knew he was going to go to jail.
"I felt glad I reported it as I felt he needed to pay for what he had done.
"Why is it ok to rape anyone and not go to jail? Why was he allowed to get on with his life when he's clearly ruined mine? Did the judge not bother reading the ordeal I had suffered?
"Now it makes me think why did I even bother reporting the rape in the first place. Nothing happened.
"My grandparents felt they had let me down but they didn't. It was the judge that let me down.
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"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."
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