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Date of sentencing of Webb and Burr

Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 10:16 pm
by LHA
To anyone interested - the deferred sentencing Peter Webb and Peter Burr will be sentenced on Friday 15 December at 1400 at Hove Crown Court

Re: Date of sentencing of Webb and Burr

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 5:21 pm
by richardb
You are half right.

Webb is indeed listed, but not Burr.

Re: Date of sentencing of Webb and Burr

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 4:00 pm
by richardb
So Webb gets four years, out in two.

Turned up in trainers with a suitcase, so he was well informed about prison.

Re: Date of sentencing of Webb and Burr

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 4:22 pm
by J.R.
Even after pleading guilty, a four year sentence seems exceptionally light to me, given his position as an 'educator' in a boarding school at the time of the offences.

I'll await the other case results with extreme interest.

Re: Date of sentencing of Webb and Burr

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 4:47 pm
by richardb
He will have got a one third reduction in sentence for pleading guilty, so it is a six year sentence after trial.

Given the position he was in, the number of victims involved and the duration of the offending it does seem rather light. It only takes one complaint and the Attorney General has to consider whether to refer it to the Court of Appeal as unduly lenient.

Having been not just at the school in the 70s but in the boarding house where Webb was a house master for 3 years, I consider myself to have had a lucky escape. Webb liked to tell adolescent pupils stories while he sat in the dark. He was a formidable drinker, well known at the Bax Castle. And he smoked a pipe.

Until I read the press reports I had forgotten much of the detail of that part of school life.

It was pretty obvious at the time what his proclivities were.

In these sorts of cases, those who come forward are often just the tip of the iceberg.

Re: Date of sentencing of Webb and Burr

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 4:51 pm
by richardb
The West Sussex County Times now reports that he was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment in 2015 for offences against yet another pupil.

Four years does look rather light in the circumstances.

Re: Date of sentencing of Webb and Burr

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 9:00 pm
by Mid A 15

Re: Date of sentencing of Webb and Burr

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2017 9:49 am
by blueeyedboy
This is simply incredible; I don't know what to say. We learn yesterday that Webb had already been convicted and done time for an offence committed against a CH pupil. I may have missed it (I can't imagine how I could have) in which case I apologise, but I can't remember any communication from the school about this. At least the new regime's communications policy for the latest trials have been more open and appropriate. And if you have already been found guilty, the fact that you don't then ask for your other offences to be taken into account at the time of your first trial suggests either crass stupidity, or an appallingly inappropriate and devious hope that you will get away with everything else that you have done. Judges don't like that; he is very lucky to only have four years, and it may very well be looked on adversely in a subsequent sentencing review.

Re: Date of sentencing of Webb and Burr

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2017 12:41 pm
by yamaha
I remember him well as the best wood and metalwork teacher in his first few years at CH when I was a junior. Perhaps that adds to my acute sadness over his appalling assaults and the ridiculously inadequate sentence.

Re: Date of sentencing of Webb and Burr

Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2017 11:01 am
by RemedyLaw
richardb wrote: Fri Dec 15, 2017 4:51 pm The West Sussex County Times now reports that he was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment in 2015 for offences against yet another pupil.

Four years does look rather light in the circumstances.
From investigations it appears he went before Brighton Magistrates on the 22 April 2015 for sentencing Court Ref T20150086

Re: Date of sentencing of Webb and Burr

Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2017 3:31 pm
by J.R.
Thanks for the update. A Magistrates court seems a lenient way of dealing with such an issue.

Re: Date of sentencing of Webb and Burr

Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2017 3:45 pm
by richardb
T20150086 is a crown court indictment number.

A magistrates court can only impose a maximum of 12 months imprisonment.

His previous case may have started in the magistrates court but it was sentenced in the crown court.

Re: Date of sentencing of Webb and Burr

Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2017 11:27 pm
by richardb
I am posting for information only and NOT to invite comment but Gary Dobbie and Andrew Husband are listed before the same judge (HHJ Henson) tomorrow for an application to change venue, is move their cases to a crown court in a different area.

Re: Date of sentencing of Webb and Burr

Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2017 7:42 am
by LHA
This takes place at Hove Trial Centre at 1400 today - agreed that there must not be any comment on this

Re: Date of sentencing of Webb and Burr

Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2017 8:46 am
by RemedyLaw
J.R. wrote: Tue Dec 19, 2017 3:31 pm Thanks for the update. A Magistrates court seems a lenient way of dealing with such an issue.
I would anticipate that although it was at the Mags, there was a Crown Court judge sitting as the length of sentence was too long to be imposed by a Mag.

It is a shame at that point he did not wish to reveal the extent of the abuse to save putting the others through the trauma of having to disclose as a result of original conviction.