Sex predator who raped two women has sentence reduced

A '˜dangerous' sex predator from East Sussex who raped two women has had his sentence slashed by top judges.
Appeal Court hearing: Chiron Hutchinson. Photograph: Kent PoliceAppeal Court hearing: Chiron Hutchinson. Photograph: Kent Police
Appeal Court hearing: Chiron Hutchinson. Photograph: Kent Police

‘Manipulative, deceitful and sex-obsessed’ Chiron Hutchinson, got 20 years detention in a young offender institution at Maidstone Crown Court on October 25 last year.

Branded a danger to the public, he was ordered to serve an extra eight years on licence after his release.

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The 20-year-old, of Mount Pleasant, Uckfield, admitted two counts of sexual activity with a child.

He was convicted of three counts of rape but acquitted of other sex offences, Mr Justice Kerr told London’s Appeal Court on Wednesday (July 11).

Hutchinson gave a teenage girl five glasses of Champagne, which made her ‘feel dizzy’, before molesting her.

He had sex with the teenager in a park when there was ‘borderline consent’, said the judge.

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A second victim had drunk a ‘large quantity of alcohol’ when she met Hutchinson at a Tunbridge Wells nightclub.

He drove the ‘extremely intoxicated’ teenager to a wooded area where he twice raped her.

A woman in her twenties had been ‘drinking and smoking some cannabis’ and was walking home alone when she encountered Hutchinson.

He gave her a lift in his car and, when she realised he was not taking her home, she asked where they were going. He gave no reply and stopped the car in a wooded area then raped her.

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A probation officer’s report described Hutchinson as ‘highly manipulative’ and having a ‘sense of entitlement’.

The judge who locked him up said he was an “opportunist who engineered situations to enable him to take advantage of young females”.

He ‘singled out’ victims who were vulnerable because of their age, ‘trusting nature’ or being drunk. Hutchinson would then ‘force himself upon them for his own sexual gratification’.

The Crown Court judge said Hutchinson was a ‘manipulative, deceitful individual, obsessed with sex’.

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A ‘fantasist’ and a ‘narcissist’, his ‘conduct was predatory’ and there were ‘fundamental flaws in his character’.

Michael Haynes, for Hutchinson, argued his sentence was far too tough and that he had wrongly been labelled dangerous.

It was more a case of an ‘opportunistic young man with a lack of understanding of sexual boundaries’ than a ‘dangerous sexual predator’, he said.

The barrister pointed to Hutchinson’s relative youth, having no previous convictions and the short timespan of his offending.

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Mr Justice Kerr, who was sitting with two other judges, said the Crown Court judge was ‘entitled to make a finding of dangerousness and to impose an extended sentence’.

But he added: “Grave though the offending was, we agree that the overall sentence was too high given his age, the lack of any previous convictions and the short duration of the offending.”

Allowing the appeal, the judge reduced the custodial term from 20 years to 16 years, and the extended licence period from eight years to four years.