Domestic Violence Act 2018
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Relationship between defendant and victim as aggravating factor in sentencing for certain offences | ||
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40. (1) Where a court is determining the sentence to be imposed on a person for a relevant offence, the fact that the offence was committed by the person against a relevant person shall be treated, for the purpose of determining the sentence, as an aggravating factor. | ||
(2) Subject to subsection (3), where subsection (1) applies the court shall impose a sentence which is greater than that which would have been imposed if the person against whom the offence was committed was not a relevant person. | ||
(3) Subsection (2) shall not apply where the court considers that there are exceptional circumstances justifying it not applying that subsection. | ||
(4) The sentence imposed as a result of the application of subsection (2) shall not be greater than the maximum sentence permissible for the relevant offence concerned. | ||
(5) In this section— | ||
“Act of 1990” means the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act 1990 ; | ||
“relevant offence” means— | ||
(a) an offence under sections 2 to 15 of the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997 , | ||
(b) any offence which involves violence or a threat of violence to a person other than an offence— | ||
(i) referred to in paragraph (a), or | ||
(ii) under section 39 , | ||
(c) rape, | ||
(d) rape under section 4 of the Act of 1990, | ||
(e) sexual assault within the meaning of section 2 of the Act of 1990, | ||
(f) aggravated sexual assault within the meaning of section 3 of the Act of 1990, | ||
(g) an offence consisting of attempting or conspiring to commit, or aiding or abetting, counselling or procuring or inciting the commission of, an offence referred to in paragraphs (a) to (f). | ||
(6) In this section, a person is a “relevant person” in respect of another person if he or she— | ||
(a) is the spouse or civil partner of that other person, or | ||
(b) is not the spouse or civil partner of that other person and is not related to that other person within a prohibited degree of relationship but is or was in an intimate relationship with that other person. |