86-year-old abused children in his care in the 1970s
A convicted sex offender – who abused children in his care at Knottfield - has been refused permission to appeal his prison sentence.
Joseph Henry Marshall, the former senior house parent at the children’s home, appeared at Douglas Courthouse today.
The 86-year-old was jailed for six years in April after being found guilty of five offences carried out, against young boys in his care, in the 1970s.
Today his legal team argued that the sentence he’d received was too long on the basis that ‘significant mitigation’ available at the time was ‘not taken into account’.
This mitigation included the fact he’d already served a prison sentence in the 1990s for similar offences, that his health was failing and the impact of the coverage of his offending.
Marshall’s advocate said before the court case, and as a result of a Tynwald inquiry into Knottfield, he’d ‘virtually become a prisoner in his own home’ adding that the sentence was 12-months too long.
However the prosecutor said it was difficult to imagine ‘a more serious and gross breach of trust’ adding he felt all mitigation had been acknowledged and saying: “The sentence was not manifestly excessive.”
Deemsters refused the application to appeal the sentence – their reasons will be set out and published in due course and Marshall was returned to the Isle of Man Prison.
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