Dominic Casciani

Well, I think, Adam, to be perfectly frank, this has come about because there's a great deal of uncertainty about whether or not the trial judge at Southampton Crown Court has done the right thing in how he's handled the case of these three boys.

And there's clearly...

as we now know, a lot of public anger and astonishment at the outcome of this case.

But at the same time, I think there is a degree of uncertainty and, well, to put it diplomatically, raised eyebrows, if not worse, among prosecutors about what's gone on, because

My understanding of the case is this is not the outcome that they expected to see and what they effectively went into court asking for during the sentencing last Thursday.

Now, I think if we break this down, I think the basic facts of the case are quite simple.

This was a really, really appalling series of attacks on two girls by three boys.

They planned the attacks.

They filmed the attacks.

They shared some of what they filmed online.

They used those films to also further degrade and humiliate the girls that they attacked.

We're not going to get into details of what went on, but when you look at the list of charges and the specific forms of the crimes that these girls were subjected to, it's absolutely appalling.

And that's why when the Crown Prosecution Service went into court last Thursday for the sentencing, they presented arguments to the judge about how he should proceed.

Now, in essence, when you have a sentencing exercise in court, it's quite simple, Adam.

The prosecution go in and they say, look, these are the facts of the case, which have now been established by the jury's verdicts.

This is how this case compares to other similar cases.

And this is why we think this case falls within a particular range of the sentencing options.

And then obviously the defendant through, you know, normally through their barrister, they get to say something in mitigation.

They talk about their background factors, which may have had a bearing on why they offended and also prospects for rehabilitation and what's happened since the offense.

And bearing in mind, when you have offenses from a couple of years ago, very often people's lives can change.