Is it true that the sentencing judge at crown court disregards presentencinreports?
No, that is not true. Or if it is, the judge deserves to be sacked. The judge should always take the PSR into consideration. That does not mean he has to follow its recommendations. The judge will usually, in about 90% of cases, follow the recommendations. When a judge decides to ignore all or the bulk of the PSR recommendations, he has to explcitly explain why. If a judge gives a sentence that completely goes against the PSR recommendations and he doesn’t explain why, you have a very good case to appeal against the sentence.
