Dominic Casciani

I do know that one of the young men was described in court as having an IQ that was so low it was in the lowest 1% of the population.

So you've clearly got one of these offenders with some quite serious developmental issues.

It's just not quite clear.

We've asked for the judge's sentencing remarks, and we haven't got them today, and the BBC's actually made a formal application

Well, look, the principle, the legal principle is the open justice rules.

The open justice principle is strong that we should have access to all this stuff.

In practice, a great deal of our justice system is still working on principles.

that are more than 100 years old at times.

And culturally, it just doesn't happen in some courts in some locations.

It can be very hit and miss.

I and other court reporters, I literally, sometimes you feel like you're banging your head off a desk sometimes and your inability to get a piece of information, which you know in legal terms is public information under the open justice principle, but you can't actually guess at it because the wheels turn very slowly.

So it's very difficult for us to actually find

fully report the circumstances of this case tonight.

Now, I think the first time we'll probably get an opportunity, Adam, is when this goes to the Court of Appeal under this unduly lenient sentence review, which has now been ordered.

Yeah, it's quite simple, really.

So, in effect, this swift review which has happened has simply involved the Attorney General, who, although the AG is a cabinet minister, with another hat on, the AG is the top legal advisor in government and supervisors.

uh the crown prosecution service the ag's team would have got a or more than one top prosecutor in the room in the last 24 hours and said to them what do you think of this case was this what you were expecting as prosecutors how does this compare to other cases those prosecutors who are in

The top courts in the land, day in, day out, would have said to the AG, this is an unduly lenient sentence.

This is what it looks like.

Armed with that information, it goes to the Court of Appeal.