Nine men who were jailed for sexually abusing a teenage girl who a judge said was treated as a “human sexual commodity” should have their sentences increased, the Court of Appeal has been told.
Ashley Darbyshire, Cory Barrett, Jack Poulson, Brandon Harwood, Richard Haslam, Elliot Turner, James Fitzgerald, Ross Corley and Daniel Bainbridge-Flatters were jailed in April for between two and 17 years for dozens of offences against the same victim.
Darbyshire first targeted the girl when she was aged 13, and she was then abused by him and the eight other defendants over two years, mainly in the Blackrod and Adlington areas of Bolton, Greater Manchester.
The Solicitor General has referred all nine sentences to the Court of Appeal, telling a hearing in London on Tuesday that they are “unduly lenient” and should be increased.
Barristers for the men are resisting the bids to increase the sentences, while Poulson and Harwood are separately seeking to appeal against the length of their jail terms.
Lord Justice Edis, Mr Justice Butcher and Judge Angela Morris said they will give their ruling at 11.30am on Wednesday.
Benjamin Holt, appearing for the Solicitor General, told the Court of Appeal on Tuesday that the sentences “did not match the gravity of the case” as the men “took it in turns to abuse this victim”.
He said: “The broad submission is that when the learned judge came to sentencing in this case, each of these offenders had committed a number of offences against an incredibly vulnerable victim.”
Mr Holt continued: “When passing sentence on the offenders, the learned judge has failed to reflect the entirety of the offending that each of these individuals was convicted of.”
He also said that a “constant theme” of the abuse was the victim being plied with alcohol and drugs.
The men were arrested following Operation Pavarotti, Greater Manchester Police’s investigation into child sexual exploitation allegations in the area.
Darbyshire first contacted the victim on social media in 2016, when she was aged 13 and he was 19.
He went on to abuse her until she was 15, raping her twice and introducing her to the other defendants, four of whom also raped her.
Much of the abuse took place in a house in Blackrod, which the sentencing judge described as a “lawless den of iniquity”.
Mr Holt said that the offending only came to an end when Bainbridge-Flatters, who gave the victim cocaine on her 15th birthday, stole a car belonging to the father of another of the men and crashed it while under the influence of alcohol, with the girl a passenger in the vehicle.
The victim, who was injured in the crash, then disclosed that she had been repeatedly sexually abused.
Ahead of his trial, Darbyshire admitted multiple offences against the victim and four other girls aged under 16, one of whom he also raped.
Sentencing him at Liverpool Crown Court in April, Judge Simon Medland KC said Darbyshire had a “crazed attitude to sex” and treated his victim as a “human sexual commodity”.
In her victim personal statement, the girl said: “I’d rather be dead most days than deal with all this mental torture and memories.
“I shouldn’t have had to grow up so young and spend the rest of my life ‘healing’ from what these monsters did to me, leaving me in my own prison I built for myself in my own mind for the rest of my life.”
At the hearing on Tuesday, Damian Nolan, for Darbyshire, said that his client had a brain haemorrhage before he was due to stand trial.
He said: “We submit that the ultimate sentence imposed was within the ambit of discretion afforded to Judge Medland.
“We would urge the court to leave the sentence unaltered.”
Ian McLoughlin KC, for Barrett, said that his client’s sentence was “perfectly within the remit of a proper judge exercising his discretion”.
Rosalind Emsley-Smith, for Bainbridge-Flatters, said that while her client’s jail term “may be a generous sentence”, it was not “overly generous”.
Many of the offenders watched proceedings via video links from various prisons.
Darbyshire, 28, from Bolton, was jailed for 15 years after admitting 19 offences, including rape, sexual activity with a child and making indecent images.
Barrett, 24, from Wigan, was jailed for 12 years after being convicted of five counts of rape and one of assault by penetration.
Poulson, 32, from Bolton, was jailed for 17 years after being convicted of 11 offences, including two counts of rape.
Harwood, 25, from Bolton, was jailed for 10 years after being convicted of rape, attempted rape and sexual activity with a child.
Haslam, 36, from Bolton, was jailed for 16 years after being convicted of seven offences, including three counts of rape.
Turner, 27, from Bolton, was jailed for two years after being convicted of two counts of sexual activity with a child.
Fitzgerald, 37, from Bolton, was jailed for five-and-a-half years after being convicted of assault by penetration.
Corley, 30, from Bolton, was jailed for two years and four months after admitting two counts of sexual activity with a child.
Bainbridge-Flatters, 35, from Bolton, was jailed for seven years after being convicted of four counts of sexual activity with a child, and pleading guilty to supplying cocaine and aggravated vehicle taking.
