A starting point of 14 years imprisonment for a course of sexual offending against two teenage victims over ten months, combined with production and possession of child exploitation material (972 images), was held manifestly excessive where the offender was relatively young (22-23), had no relevant prior offending, pleaded guilty early, and was already serving a four-year sentence for similar subsequent offending. An appropriate starting point was 11 years. Limited assistance may be obtained from comparison with sentences in other cases, particularly where sexual offending is combined with child exploitation material offending.
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