Craig John Sweeney[1] (born 1981 in South Glamorgan) is a Welsh child sex offender, from Newport, Gwent.
Public criticism of Sweeney's sentence voiced by Home Secretary John Reid prompted the House of Commons Constitutional Affairs Committee to recommend that the Ministerial Code be amended with guidelines to govern the public comments of ministers about individual judges to reinforce the provisions within the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.
While on licence, he was accused of inappropriately touching a child's bottom, but the police and probation workers did not return him to prison, despite his "risk of harm" being raised to "high".
On 10 July 2006, it was decided the case would not be referred to the Court of Appeal, as the sentence had been calculated in accordance with the legislation enacted by the-then Labour government.
[9] Nick Clegg said it was "rank hypocrisy for Reid to blame judges for sentences which are a direct consequence of recent legislation introduced by this government".
Ex-High Court judge Sir Oliver Popplewell said: "I think it's unwise for the home secretary to poke his nose into legal affairs."