We looked at the unusual case of Ian Paterson, a surgeon who was jailed for 15 years on 31st May 2017 following his conviction for causing grievous bodily harm (mostly with intent) by carrying out unnecessary operations.
It was a very difficult sentencing exercise, which we suggested that the Judge appeared to have carried out very carefully and explained why he was passing the sentence that he did.
We also said that we would not be surprised if there was an appeal (and pressure for an AG Reference). And so it was that on the 20th July we learned that the Court of Appeal will be looking at the sentence, after the Attorney-General referred the case for consideration of whether it was ‘unduly lenient’ (a high threshold).
The hearing is going to be on the 3rd August. It is very difficult to guess what the Court will do, but we will come back to it next month.