VETERAN BRITISH BROADCASTER Stuart Hall has had his 15-month sentence for a series of indecent assaults doubled by the Court of Appeal in London. He will now serve 30 months in prison.
According to the BBC, Lord Chief Justice Igor Judge said the original term had been unduly lenient, and that the impact of the crimes on Hall’s victims would be lifelong.
The court ruled that that one of the 15-month sentences handed down to the 83-year-old should run consecutively to the others, effectively doubling his punishment.
The former BBC TV and radio presenter was jailed last month after admitting to 14 charges of indecently assaulting girls as young as nine.
Prosecutors said the 83-year-old, who presented “It’s a Knockout” in the 1970s and 1980s, was an “opportunistic predator” who befriended his victims before assaulting them.
The abuse surfaced following a police investigation into revelations about late Jimmy Savile, now believed to be one of Britain’s worst-ever sex offenders.
The assaults, involving 13 victims, took place between 1967 and 1985, when he regularly appeared on TV
Hall pleaded guilty in April. A charge of rape that he denies has been allowed to stay on the file after the alleged victim said she did not want to go through a trial.
His lawyer previously claimed Hall had been arrested “as a consequence” of the Savile investigations, but that his crimes were nowhere near that scale.
- additional reporting by AFP
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