R v OIM

Facts

The offender, referred to as OIM to protect the lifelong anonymity of the victim under the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992, was born on 26 September 1996. His younger sister, KB, was born on 6 May 2002, some five years and ten months after him. In the family home he committed a series of sexual offences against her: two oral rapes (counts 1 and 2), an attempted vaginal rape interrupted by their mother coming upstairs (count 3), digital penetration causing pain (count 4), and the insertion of two dinosaur toys and a pencil into her vagina, together with coercing one of their younger twin brothers to do the same (count 5). KB reported the matters to the police on 7 September 2024; the offender was arrested and interviewed the same day, saying he had blocked out that period of his life. He was charged by postal requisition on 8 October 2025 and pleaded guilty to all counts in the Crown Court at Lewes on 5 December 2025. On 29 April 2026 His Honour Judge Swirsky imposed 18 months' imprisonment suspended for two years on counts 2 to 5 concurrently, with 120 hours of unpaid work and a 30 day Rehabilitation Activity Requirement, and no separate penalty on count 1. The Solicitor General applied for leave to refer the sentence as unduly lenient under section 36 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.