Lawyer defends baby rape judge

James Taylor (left) was given five years by Lord Reed (right)

A leading lawyer has defended the judge who sentenced a man to five years in jail for raping a baby girl.

Derek Ogg, chairman of the Scottish Bar Criminal Law Group, also criticised politicians for commenting publicly on Lord Reed's decision.

The Lord Advocate, who heads Scotland's prosecution service, has asked for a report on the case of James Taylor, who admitted raping the 13-month-old girl and taking pictures while doing so.

Mr Ogg said the judge would have taken into account confidential information, including risk assessments that neither politicians nor the public would have seen, before passing sentence.

The QC stressed that he was not personally in possession of the full facts of the case and described Lord Reed as "very, very experienced" and a "brilliant" judge.

I think it's despicable that we have politicians becoming involved in commenting on individual sentencing Derek Ogg QC

"You get signal crimes which on the face of it are very horrific and no-one is suggesting otherwise. But a judge's job is also to sentence the offender not just the offence," he told the BBC's Today programme.

"A lot of people will say 'that's a lot of nonsense, let's roast him [the accused] slowly over a fire for this' but we pay and train the judge to be independent of politicians, to be independent of the press and to coolly look at something after taking professional risk assessments.

"Of course any judge can make a mistake. That's why we've got a right of appeal to the Court of Appeal and that's the process that should be taken."

Asked on Thursday for his view of the sentence, Scotland's First Minister Jack McConnell said he could not comment specifically on the case because of the Lord Advocate's involvement.

But he went on to talk about the need for the punishment to "fit the crime".

'Separation of powers'

Mr Ogg said: "I think it's despicable that we have politicians becoming involved in commenting on individual sentencing. We have separation of powers for an important reason in this country. Politicians aren't involved in sentencing.

"Do you want judges to be sentencing people on the basis of their emotional reaction? These are family people - they have young children or young grandchildren of their own, they are as appalled and horrified and sickened by crime that comes before them. They see more of it than any of us.

Sentencing policy in Scotland is under review

"But we pay them to be cool and dispassionate and to work on the basis of risk and so on. If they get it wrong the Court of Appeal is there for it."

Responding to Mr Ogg, Scotland's Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson said Mr McConnell had not commented specifically about the Taylor case but had answered media questions on a general basis.

She pointed at the recently announced Sentencing Commission which she said would look at improving the consistency of sentences and ensuring that public opinion was taken into account.

"I think that the general public have to have confidence in the system and though it will only be a small number of cases that will provoke controversy, nonetheless I think we have a duty as politicians to reflect the public's views," the minister added.