George Mawhinney started his MSt in Legal Research under the supervision of Prof Andrew Ashworth in October 2010. George came to the Centre for Criminology in the Faculty of Law originally back in 2008 for the MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice. After an immensely enlightening and enjoyable year, he is elated to have now returned in Michaelmas 2010 to commence research. His MSt thesis builds upon the investigation conducted for his MSc dissertation in a fast-moving, crucially important dimension of contemporary sentencing law, supervised once again by Prof Ashworth. It applies the principles of desert theory to the practice of sentencing in the UK in the light of Sch. 21 to the Criminal Justice Act 2003. Outside his studies, he is keenly interested in politics and history, inter alia.