A horse-riding instructor who had a threesome with an underage girl has been jailed for five years while his showjumper girlfriend who also took part has avoided prison. Guy Simmonds, 37, from Monmouthshire, had sexual intercourse with his partner, Lauren Jarvis, 26, and the 15-year-old girl in January last year. Jarvis willingly took part and touched the victim sexually, and afterwards the pair agreed to keep quiet about it.
Then why on earth was she shown such leniency?
Jarvis was handed a 12-month prison sentence suspended for a year and ordered to complete 15 days of rehabilitation work. She was also placed on the sexual offenders register for 10 years and given a restraining order of five years.
She must have had a solid defence!
Julia Cox, representing Jarvis, said pre-sentence reports had identified her client as being susceptible to 'suggestibility and pressure' and due to her low intelligence was incapable of living on her own.
Oh, or not!
'Without that influence and direction as far as Lauren Jarvis is concerned, that offending would not have happened,' she said. 'The pre-sentence report author identifies the vulnerabilities of Lauren Jarvis to manipulation by others and exploitation.
Ah yes, without the man she wouldn’t have been steered wrong!
Miss Cox urged the court to impose a suspended sentence, adding: 'There will be a detrimental impact upon her family, particularly her mother.'
Well, so what? Doesn’t Guy also have a mother?
6 comments:
If Jarvis was of low intelligence, susceptible to suggestability and pressure, and incapable of living on her own, then she is a vulnerable person, and Simmonds should have been arrested, interviewed under caution, and possibly charged, for sexual abuse of Jarvis. It appears that social services, the Police, and the Criminal Protection Society have taken the easy route, again. I was often criticised for suggesting there is a wide gap between the law and justice, and it appears to be getting wider. Not a good day for any of the organisations who are supposed to protect us.
Penseivat
"incapable of living on her own"
Then prison would be the perfect environment
Penseivat makes a point that was my first reaction too.
However, based on teaching experience working with teenagers who would fit that description, the question of assessing ‘low intelligence’ and suggestibility is something of a grey area, especially when it comes to relationships (which can be safeguarding nightmare among older school pupils) and I have often heard parents overstate the lowest extremes of an Ed Psych assessment when it comes to extra exam time or in matters of discipline.
It’s not impossible that her defence team (perhaps acting on the instructions of her mother) have chosen the lesser evil of portraying her as cognitively impaired, vulnerable and incapable of looking after herself in an attempt to exonerate her completely and throw her partner under the bus - although in this case, given the age difference and the man’s status as an instructor, it does look horribly like a form of exploitation may have played a part.
Low hanging fruit as always. Does no-one ever relish a thorough job anymore?
Good point!
Strange then, that the trenchant feminists appear to have ignored it. Eh?
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