According to the BBC, the attorney general will review the 12-month suspended sentence received by Graham Ovenden to determine whether it is too lenient.1 If the attorney general believes that it is, the sentence could be referred to the Court of Appeal for further review and, provided the Court of Appeals finds a juridically valid reason for doing so, revision. ("Leniency" is not in itself a reason to revise a sentence.)
The disgraceful handling of Mr. Ovenden's case by the press has without a doubt created concern in the attorney general's office. The BBC continued its libelous reporting in the above-cited article, by repeating the lie that Mr. Ovenden "abused four children - now all adults - between 1972 and 1985 while they modelled for him." As the information on this blog makes manifestly clear, the two acts of "molestation" for which Mr. Ovenden was convicted pertained to a single witness and had nothing to do with photographing or painting. The other counts of conviction relate to 3 photographs of two of the witnesses -- both of whom were steadfast in their support of Mr. Ovenden's depictions of them some twenty years ago when they were in their 20s.
We are confident here that once the attorney general realises the true nature of the conviction, the sentence will stand until the conviction itself is properly overturned on appeal.
Endnote
1"Graham Ovenden sex crimes: Review into suspended sentence." BBC News, 05 June 2013. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-22782376
This site is about British artist Graham Ovenden and his conviction on false charges of child abuse and so-called "indecent" images. It is also about his art.
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