The defendant had been sentenced in 1995 to life imprisonment for abduction and other offences. He sought release saying that new life prisoners would have the specified minimum set at one half of the notional determinate sentence, and not two thirds as had been the practice at the time he was sentenced.
Held: The practice was not to be applied retrospectively, and the appeal failed. However the notional determinate sentence should have been set at 22 years. The true protection for the public lay in the life sentence, not in providing for an extended notional determinate term.
Judges:
Pill LJ, Gray J, Sir Ian Kennedy
Citations:
Times 03-Dec-2004
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Criminal Sentencing
Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.220267