The Lord Chief Justice, sitting with the full Court of Appeal in Manchester, has dismissed all appeals against sentence and one appeal against conviction for sex offences against a 15-year-old girl.
The series of four trials that spanned 2013-14 were led by Neil Usher and Charlotte Holland of Lincoln House Chambers Manchester and concerned the rape and sexual exploitation of a vulnerable teenage girl residing in Rochdale. Sentences of up to eight and a half years were imposed by the trial judge on the six defendants.
Lord Thomas in rejecting all appeals stressed that “the judge was right to make clear that the courts must take every step open to them to protect vulnerable young girls from exploitation of this kind in whatever part of the country they live.”
Neil and Charlotte were instructed by the CPS Complex Crime Unit.
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