AN ADULT male tricks an 11-year-old child into sending indecent photographs of herself for his pleasure.

He shows no remorse for his actions; indeed, his sole concern seems to be the impact his conduct might have on his own welfare.

Most people would regard this as the horrific, perverted act of a predator with despicable and dangerous sexual tastes.

Most people, however, are not Recorder David Bartlett, who freed such a man from Swindon Crown Court and said: “I don’t consider this to be a particularly serious case.”

He was speaking at the sentencing of Clive Grace, from Freshbrook, who has strolled free with a suspended sentence and restrictions on internet use which seem largely unenforceable.

It is more than a generation since the late Mr Justice Leonard outraged and disgusted the nation by proclaiming that the victim of the Ealing Vicarage rape had not suffered a particularly great trauma.

Unfortunately, even after all these years it seems the legal establishment has little grasp of the seriousness of sexual offences, and of their impact on victims.

Leonard’s contempt for the victim and sympathy toward her attackers in 1987 was among the factors which prompted a change in the law allowing prosecutors to appeal against excessively lenient sentences. We hope prosecutors consider such an appeal in respect of Grace.

While it would be entirely incorrect to suggest that Recorder Bartlett’s conduct is anywhere near as condemnable as that of Leonard, we wonder whether the child Grace preyed upon and humiliated regards his offence as not particularly serious.

Recorder Bartlett described Grace as a man of good character. He is nothing of the sort. He is a deviant who belongs in jail.