[Omah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22948133

BBC broadcaster Stuart Hall "got off very lightly" with a 15 month jail sentence for sexually abusing girls, a victim support charity has said.

The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) said the tariff showed his crimes were not taken "seriously enough".

Napac chief executive Peter Saunders said he had "lost count of how many people have said to me in the last 24 hours 'what a lenient sentence'.

"If more people understood the consequences for the victims and the life-long misery that many of them suffer as a result of these crimes, I think most would agree that Stuart Hall has got off very lightly," he said.

"We need to look at sentencing [as] the judge could have given a stiffer sentence. What this is saying is that the judiciary in this case have not taken the crime seriously enough.

"It has to be zero tolerance and the right punishment for the crime."

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) chief executive Peter Wanless said the sentence was "not a great day for justice".

"Hall will be free within months but the trauma he caused his victims will stay with them a lot longer - possibly for the rest of their lives," he said.

"He has shown total disregard for their feelings, even arrogantly branding them liars.

"Whilst it's commendable that this case was pursued even after such a long passage of time the end result is not a great day for justice or for the victims."