Mark Robinson, instructed by Julliz Solicitors LLP, successfully secures a Suspended Sentence Order for a defendant appearing before Wood Green Crown Court charged with Perverting the Course of Justice.
The defendant, a young woman, was accused of falsely reporting that her ex-partner made threatening phone calls against her, as a result he was remanded into custody for 5 months.
The police subsequently investigated the matter and on the day of the ex-partner’s trial it was revealed that the defendant had made the calls to herself via a call collect service. She was then arrested and charged. It then transpired that the defendant was a victim of domestic violence and had recently had her children taken into local authority care as a result of the ex-partner’s domestic violence towards her and one of their children.
The defendant was of previous good character however, the Crown’s case was that there was an element of sophistication and a degree of planning as she planted evidence against her ex-partner, and the deception lasted for 5 months.
The prosecutor referred to the current sentencing practice guidance and submitted that the defendant could be sentenced to 5 years. Mark made submissions on the detrimental impact to the defendant’s children if she were to receive an immediate custodial sentence as she hoped to regain custody of them very soon. Mark also referred to the principles in the case of R v Manning 2020 and submitted that the defendant would be unable to participate in any rehabilitative courses due to the current Covid-19 regime in prisons, which may lead to her being in her cell for up to 23.5 hours a day, therefore custody may be an inappropriate punishment.
The Judge said the starting point should be 3.5 years in custody but accepted Mark’s mitigation and then reduced the defendant’s sentence to 2 years, suspending it for 2 years and imposing a 12-month community order, with a 12 week electronically monitored curfew.