Ex-BBC broadcaster Stuart Hall’s jail sentence doubled to 30 months

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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British Court of Appeal has doubled the jail sentence of ex-BBC broadcaster Stuart Hall to two-and-a-half years on Friday for a string of historic sexual offences against young girls.

Three London court judges had ruled that the original 15-month term handed to Hall was “inadequate” in light of the gravity of the offences and should be raised to 30 months.

The case had been referred to the court by Attorney General Dominic Grieve, who had claimed that Hall’s sentence failed to adequately reflect the gravity of his offending and the public concern about such crimes.

After initially denying the charges, Hall, 83, from Wilmslow, Cheshire, pleaded guilty in May to 14 counts of indecent assault against girls as young as 9 and as old as 17 between 1967 and 1986.

Handing down the reviewed sentence, Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge said Hall “got away with it” for decades and had “lived a lie for more than half of his life”.

Hall, who had initially described the claims against him as “cruel, pernicious and spurious” before entering a guilty plea in April, showed no reaction to the announcement after listening to Friday’s proceedings via video link from HMP Preston.

Attorney Grieve has stated after the ruling: “I asked the court to consider the multiple offending by Stuart Hall over a prolonged period of time which involved numerous victims.

“I also asked that the court take into account the breaches of trust in this case — Hall carried out some of these offences in places where the victims were entitled to feel safe, he used his celebrity status to invite them to attend the BBC, and he also displayed an element of planning and premeditation.”

Grieve has expressed his hope the case would demonstrate that the law still applied to historic sexual offences “whoever the offender may be.”

During Hall’s trial his lawyer had claimed that 27 years had passed since his last offence and maintained that the presenter had since led an “unblemished” life.

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