Minimum terms
High Court setting of minimum terms for mandatory life sentences under the Criminal Justice Act 2003
Case No: 2004/619/MTS
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION Neutral Citation: 2961QB
Courts of Justice
Crown Square, Manchester M3 3FL
Date: 7th December 2006
Before:
MR. JUSTICE HENRIQUES
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Application by MATHEW AMOBI for the setting of a minimum term pursuant to Schedule 22, paragraph 6, of the Criminal Justice Act 2003.
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Decision
I direct that pursuant to CPR PD 39A paragraph 6.1 no official shorthand note shall be taken of this decision and that copies of this version as handed down may be treated as authentic
The Hon Mr Justice Henriques
I am required to set the minimum term of a Mandatory Life Sentence pursuant to Schedule 22 paragraph 6 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003.
On the 15th of January 2003 Mathew Amobi (the applicant) was sentenced to Life Imprisonment by His Honour Judge Moss QC with a recommendation that he serve a minimum term of 12 years. He was born on the 28th of May 1974. I have before me the trial Judges sentencing remarks, the report, the transcript of the Judgment of the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) submissions on behalf of the applicant and the statement by the victim’s family.
The brief facts are these:
The defendant and his wife lived in a bed-sitting room in a house in Tottenham. The deceased, Alexander Nwafor occupied another room in the house. The deceased’s behaviour towards others in the house caused difficulties amongst the residents. He tended to be loud, aggressive and guilty of anti-social behaviour. However he and the defendant had for a time been on friendly terms. On the evening of the 1st of July 2002 the defendant and the deceased argued over noise from the victim’s radio. The defendant’s wife stepped between the two men and was punched in the nose causing bleeding. The defendant lost his temper, picked up a kitchen knife and stabbed the deceased 6 times. Two stab wounds punctured the heart and a third the liver. The deceased staggered into the street where the defendant did his best to help him, as he lay fatally wounded. The defendant told police that an unknown assailant had attacked and killed the deceased and then fled. He maintained this version of events until service of the defence case statement.
At trial the applicant accepted that he told lies in interview and his defence was one of self defence. He said that the deceased had been playing loud music. The deceased arrived home in an aggressive mood. He put his hand over the applicants face and pushed him into the kitchen where there was a tussle. The deceased punched the applicant to the face. The applicant threatened to call the police. The deceased hit him with the broom. The applicant picked up the knife. The deceased rushed. The blade then fell on the floor. The deceased tried to strangle the applicant. The account given by the applicant was that in the course of the struggle, he had without intending to stab the deceased, been holding the knife when the knife penetrated the body of the deceased. The jury rejected that account.
In sentencing the Judge accepted that the applicants wife was probably assaulted and that made the applicant lose his temper completely. The Judge took the starting point of 12 years. He was sentencing in January 2003. The practice direction establishing a norm of 12 years was handed down on the 31st of May 2002 – the very day before this killing and accordingly a 12 year norm was an appropriate figure. The Judge concluded that no higher starting point was appropriate and did not consider that such provocation as the defendant may have suffered (the difficult character of the deceased, the assault upon his wife) was such as could be said to be either prolonged or unsupportable. He rejected any submission that this was a case of over reaction in self defence. I take the same view of the facts. The trial Judge was of course in the best possible position to evaluate the factual scenario.
The applicant self made representations do not assist me. He asserts that he was defending himself and will not accept ‘this unlawful conviction’.
I set the minimum term at 12 years imprisonment less 6 months and 9 days spent in custody on remand.