Sentence Cut for Paedophile Who Claimed ‘Transgender Crisis’ Led Him to Download Child Porn

Judges have cut a man’s sentence after he claimed a “gender identity crisis” led him to download and store more than 1,400 indecent images of small children.

Leicester Crown Court sentenced Sarbjeet Jagdev to three years in prison in May, after he admitted seven counts of possessing child sex abuse pictures.

But judges reduced the sentence to two years at London’s Criminal Appeal Court, when they heard the 23-year-old stockpiled images and videos of the sexual abuse of young girls because he was confused about his sexuality, the Leicester Mercury reports.

Jagdev said the compulsion to look at indecent images of children arose because of feeling “unable to confront” his belief that he could be transgender as a result of having had a “strict upbringing”.

Lawyers defending the Leicester resident told the court: “For some years, he had been troubled by a crisis of gender identity which he had been unable to confront.”

Hearing that Jagdev sought counselling and therapy for confusion regarding gender and sexuality following his arrest last year, Mr. Justice Spencer allowed the appeal.

He said: “There was a high volume of images and they included moving images.

“The fundamental question is whether the judge took a starting point which was manifestly excessive having regard to the mitigation.

“He had expressed and demonstrated remorse and started to address his offending behaviour.

“In the circumstances, the proper sentence here was two years,” concluded the judge.

Last month, Labour MP David Lammy called for more lenient treatment of black and minority ethnic (BAME) suspects, after accusing Britain’s criminal justice system of bias in a report which was slammed by critics.

Civitas chief David Green debunked the former minister’s claim that “overt discrimination” is to blame disparities in imprisonment rates between ethnic groups in a piece for The Spectator.

“[Lammy’s] selective use of statistics suggests that he was determined to find discrimination whether it was there or not,” concludes Green’s Spectator piece, which analyses each of the MP’s claims.