Sex offender's sentence cut

A serial child porn downloader and flasher today won an appeal against his potentially life-long jail term after top judges decided he could not be classified as a dangerous criminal. Peter John Barber (56), from Westwood, Peterborough, was handed an indefinite jail term "for public protection" in November 2008 at Peterborough Crown Court, after admitting a series of offences involving the distribution, making and possession of in decent images of children. The sentence, almost identical to a life term, meant Barber would not be freed until the Parole Board was convinced he was no longer a serious danger to society. But top judges today overturned the open-ended sentence, replacing it with a conventional four-year jail term, of which he will have to serve half before he becomes eligible for automatic release.

source: Article 'Sex offender's sentence cut' by Willaim Smith; www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/Sex-offender39ssentence-cut.5091857.jp; PeterboroughToday.co.uk; 20 March 2009