R v Kishor Patel

In sentencing multiple-incident sexual offences, the court must assess the full criminality disclosed by the frequency and number of incidents. The guideline range for a single incident is not an effective ceiling. Tens of rapes over several months may require sentencing as a campaign or near campaign. Pregnancy resulting from rape is a category factor, but the actual continuing harm may require a further substantial increase. Where concurrent sentences are imposed with rape as the lead offences, the sentence must still reflect additional criminality in associated sexual assaults, subject to totality. On the facts, the least adequate aggregate sentence was 16 years.

Following convictions for historical sexual offences against a child, the Crown Court at Leicester imposed an aggregate sentence of nine years’ imprisonment on 13 October 2025. The Attorney General referred the sentence under Criminal Justice Act 1988, s.36, contending that it was unduly lenient. The central issues were the effect of the multiple-incident rape count, the consequences of a pregnancy resulting from rape, the additional criminality in the other sexual assaults, and the application of totality.

Reference allowed. The sentences were unduly lenient by a large margin.

1. Count 4 involved tens of rapes, occurring once or twice a week over roughly six months against a child aged 13 or 14. The sheer number and frequency of incidents required a substantial movement beyond the starting point and range for a single category 2B rape. The offending should have been sentenced as a campaign or near campaign.
2. Although pregnancy following rape is identified as a factor indicating category 2 harm, that does not exhaust its relevance. The court must consider the actual and continuing impact of the pregnancy on the victim, her son and others. Count 7, viewed alone, required a significant upward adjustment and justified a sentence substantially longer than nine years.
3. The judge was entitled to impose concurrent sentences with the rape counts as the lead offences. He nevertheless had to bring into account the additional criminality represented by the indecent assaults in counts 1, 5 and 6.
4. Totality remained important, but it did not prevent a substantial aggregate sentence where the principal count warranted a sentence well into double figures, the separate rape was exceptionally serious and caused additional harm, and the other offences added further criminality. The least aggregate sentence reasonably available was 16 years.
5. The prosecution’s inadequate opening could not prevent the Court of Appeal from intervening and imposing the least sentence that could properly have been passed.

The nine-year sentences on counts 4 and 7 were quashed and 16-year sentences substituted. All sentences remained concurrent.

1. Court of Appeal (Criminal Division): On a reference under Criminal Justice Act 1988, s.36, the court allowed the reference, quashed the nine-year sentences on counts 4 and 7, and substituted concurrent sentences of 16 years.
2. Crown Court at Leicester: On 13 October 2025, HHJ Spencer KC imposed an aggregate sentence of nine years’ imprisonment.