U.K. woman, who killed paedophile, gets 7.5 yrs in jail

Vigilante conduct in the manslaughter of her neighbour led to the sentence.

A British woman, who stabbed to death a convicted paedophile in 2014, has had her prison sentence more than doubled to 7.5 years by a court here over her “vigilante conduct,” according to a media report.

Sarah Sands (33) was found guilty of the manslaughter of her neighbour Michael Pleasted (77) after learning he had been charged with sexually assaulting young boys.

He was stabbed 8 times

A trial in September heard that Pleasted was stabbed eight times and bled to death. Ms. Sands was found guilty of his death by reason of loss of control and was sentenced to three-and-a-half years.

Judges at the court of appeal here increased the prison term originally imposed in the case to seven-and-a-half years on Friday, after the case was referred by the Attorney General over concerns that the original sentencing had been “unduly lenient,” the Guardian reported.

Follows careful review

A spokesman for the Attorney General’s office said: “Our office received a great deal of correspondence in regards to this highly emotive and sensitive case. Following careful review, this case was referred to the court of appeal as it was felt the original sentence was unduly lenient, and the court of appeal increased the sentence to seven-and-a-half years.”

Ms. Sands, a single mother of five from east London, killed Pleasted within weeks of hearing that he had been released on bail ahead of his trial on two charges of sexual assault on children aged under 13. He was also under investigation for a further allegation regarding a third boy.

The report did not mention if Ms. Sands’ children were among those assaulted.

Went to his flat with a knife

In November 2014, Ms. Sands armed herself with a knife and went to Pleasted’s flat in Canning Town, east London, to confront him about the allegations, which is when the “determined and sustained attack” took place.

During the trial it emerged that Pleasted, who also went by the name of Robin Moult, had 24 previous convictions for sexual offences between 1970 and 1991, the daily reported.

Unique case: judge

The presiding judge, Nicholas Cooke, said the case was unique as Ms. Sands had lost control rather than taken the law into her own hands and engaged in “vigilante conduct.”

He said: “This was a case in which the defendant promptly gave herself up to the police in a highly stressed state, never disputed responsibility for the killing as a matter of fact, did not take the opportunity to get rid of evidence and demonstrated remorse.”

Mr. Cooke took into consideration Ms. Sand’s position as a single mother, as well as her admission of guilt when sentencing. But three judges at the court of appeal ruled that because Ms. Sands had taken a knife to the scene, the fact she inflicted fatal injuries and the jury’s finding that she must have intended to cause really serious harm to the victim, the sentence should be increased to seven-and-a-half years.