The court faced an appeal against a sentence of 12 years’ imprisonment on pleas of guilty to 6 indecent assaults. The judge imposed 2 years’ imprisonment consecutive on each Count totalling 12 years.
Held: The judge was purporting to exercise his powers under Section 2(2)(b). If the section was properly invoked the total sentence was justified even on guilty pleas. The court was however troubled as to whether the reference to the sentence ‘not exceeding the permitted maximum’ in the section rendered the 12 year sentence unlawful. The court concluded that the section did not affect the principle that sentences for separate offences may in appropriate circumstances be consecutive or the principle that consecutive sentences may in total, and subject to the duty of ensuring that the totality of the consecutive sentences is not excessive, exceed the statutory maximum. ‘The section . . is not concerned with and does not have the effect of eliminating or limiting the power of the Court to order sentences to run consecutively . . .The expression ‘maximum permitted sentence’ applies to the sentence for an individual offence. Provided that does not exceed 10 years upon an exercise of the power (to impose a longer than commensurate sentence) there is no obstacle to aggregating other individual sentences which do not exceed that maximum. Moreover there is no obstacle to exercising the power (to impose a longer than commensurate sentence) in an individual sentence imposed consecutively to another sentence on which that power has been exercised.’ The court substituted terms of 6 years imprisonment as longer than commensurate sentences. The sentences on Counts 1 to 3 were ordered to run concurrently with each other; the sentences on Counts 4 to 6 were also ordered to run concurrently with each other but consecutively to the sentences imposed on Counts 1 to 3. The 12-year total thus remained.
Pill LJ
98/0959/Z3, Unreported, 15 December 1998
Criminal Justice Act 1991 2(2)(b)
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Regina v Backwell CACD 18-Nov-2003
The defendant appealed against a sentence for violent sexual assaults. Charges of rape were left on the file. He had toured the streets of Torquay selecting women who, for drink or otherwise, would be less able to resist. The judge thought a proper . .
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Updated: 15 July 2021; Ref: scu.187986
