Minimum terms
High Court setting of minimum terms for mandatory life sentences under the Criminal Justice Act 2003
Neutral Citation Number: [2007] EWHC 1306 (QB)
Case No: 2004/659/MTS
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Date: 20/06/2007
Before :
MR JUSTICE GRIGSON
REGINA v ABDALLA YONES
A REFERRAL PURSUANT TO SCHEDULE 22, PARAGRAPH 6 OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT 2003
DECISION
Mr Justice Grigson:
1. Abdalla Yones pleaded guilty to murder and consequently was sentenced to imprisonment for life. The recommendation as to the minimum term to be served by way of retribution and general deterrence was 14 years. No final decision has been notified to the offender. The purpose of these proceedings is to set the minimum term under the provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2003.
2. The term fixed under the Act must not exceed that likely to have been set by the Secretary of State for the Home Department. That term is to be determined by reference to the Guidance to Judges given by Lord Bingham CJ on 10th February 1997 and by Lord Woolf CJ on the 31st May 2002.
3. The Court may not make an order that the early release provisions should not apply to the offender unless such a notification would have been made under the practice followed by the Secretary of State before December 2002.
4. The determination of the minimal term in relation to mandatory Life sentences is governed by Schedule 22 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003.
5. The starting point of a minimum term is to be decided by the seriousness of the offender’s conduct.
6. There are 3 categories of seriousness:
(a) Where the offender is over 21 and the seriousness of his conduct is exceptionally high, the starting point is a whole life order.
(b) Where the offender is over 18 and the seriousness of his conduct is particularly high, the starting point is 30 years.
(c) Where the offender is over 18 and the case does not come within (a) or (b) above, the starting point is 15 years.
7. The seriousness of the offender’s conduct is to be determined by the criteria set out in paragraph 4(2) for exceptionally high cases and in paragraph 5(2) for particularly high cases. Conduct which does not qualify for either comes into the third category.
8. Having determined the starting point, the Court may either increase the minimum term or reduce it, depending upon whether there are aggravating or mitigating factors. Some of these factors are listed in paragraphs 10 and 11.
9. Having fixed the minimum term the Court must deduct from it time spent in custody on remand in relation to the murder.
10. If the offender has shown exceptionally good progress whilst in prison, that progress may be recognised by a reduction in the minimum term which would otherwise have been chosen.
11. Where there is evidence of the effect of the murder upon the victim’s family, the Court gives proper consideration to that material.
12. Facts
On 12th October 2002 Abdella Yones stabbed to death his 16 year old daughter Heshu in the flat where the family lived. It was a frenzied attack. Heshu suffered 11 wounds to her face, neck and body. He then tried to cut his own throat before jumping from a 3rd floor balcony. He made a further attempt to take his own life whilst in custody awaiting trial.
Abdella Yones is a Kurdish national who had spent most of his life involved in the Kurdish struggle for independence. He brought his family to the UK when Heshu was 5. He sought and was granted asylum. Heshu went to local schools. Abdella Yones was a loving father and he and Heshu got on well. Heshu formed a relationship with a young Lebanese Christian. Abdella Yonis became aware of it but not that it had become a sexual relationship. Hesu’s progress at college deteriorated. She failed her examinations. She incurred substantial bills with use of her mobile phone. On 10th October 2002 Abdella Yones received an anonymous letter in which the author described Heshu as a prostitute and slut who regularly slept with her boyfriend. Abdella Yones did nothing immediately, but on 12th October he was left alone with Heshu in the flat. He heard her on her mobile phone. He has no recollection of how he acquired the knife nor of the actual attack on Heshu. He recognised that he had killed his daughter and had destroyed his family. He felt that the appropriate punishment was death. The judge accepted those feelings as genuine.
13. Material before the Court
Trial Judge’s Report.
Transcript of Mitigation and Sentence Remarks
Submissions on behalf of Abdella Yones.
14. Submissions
Whilst submissions by Steel and Shamash Solicitor’s largely repeated Counsel’s mitigation, it is argued that the 14 years recommended by the judge was too high and that the proper figure should be 9 or 10 years. They point out that the offender pleaded guilty.
15. Aggravating Features
The victim was a child of 16 and the daughter of the offender.
16. Mitigating Factors
It would seem that the murder was unpremeditated. It is arguable that Heshu’s conduct provoked her father. His remorse was genuine.
17. Conclusion
Under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 the starting point is 15 years. A starting point of 14 years is easily justified under the Bingham/Woolf guidelines. This was a terrible crime as Abdalla Yones himself recognised. In my judgment there is no compelling reason for departing from the recommendation of the trial judge. I set the minimum term as 14 years less the 7 months and 6 days spent in custody on remand.