Brown, R v

On a renewed application for leave to appeal sentence, a total sentence will not be disturbed unless it is manifestly excessive. The principle of totality does not prevent a consecutive sentence for perverting the course of justice where the separate offending is serious and materially increases the overall criminality.

The sentencing court may treat a child’s prolonged abandonment, deliberate concealment of that abandonment, and repeated similar conduct as aggravating. It may also take account of good character and the personal consequences of the offending. Where those matters have been properly weighed, the sentence will stand.

The applicant was convicted at Coventry Crown Court on 5 March 2009 of causing or allowing the death of her 22-month-old daughter and perverting the course of justice. She had left the child alone in a locked rear bedroom. A fire caused by an electrical fault then occurred and the child died.

After discovering the child, the applicant falsely said that the child had been left with another person. She received six years’ imprisonment for the death offence and 18 months’ consecutive imprisonment for perverting the course of justice, making seven years and six months.

After a single judge refused leave, she renewed her application, contending that the total sentence was manifestly excessive and insufficiently reflected totality and her good character.

1. The court refused the renewed application for leave to appeal sentence. The total sentence of seven years and six months was not manifestly excessive.

2. The individual sentences were not excessive. The six-year sentence properly placed the offence of causing or allowing the child’s death in the middle of the relevant sentencing range.

3. The consecutive 18-month sentence for perverting the course of justice did not offend totality. A consecutive sentence was usual for that offence, and the applicant’s elaborate lies and attempt to attribute responsibility to an innocent and caring person made it a serious example.

4. The sentencing judge was entitled to treat as aggravating the length and conditions of the child’s abandonment, the deliberate choice of a room designed to prevent discovery, and the fact that the child and her sisters had previously been left alone. The judge had also considered mitigation, including the applicant’s good character and the loss of her child.

5. The court agreed with the single judge’s assessment that the sentencing remarks were clear, cogent and not open to serious criticism.

• Court of Appeal (Criminal Division): renewed application for leave to appeal sentence refused: [2009] EWCA Crim 2133.

• Crown Court at Coventry: on 5 March 2009, the applicant was convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child and perverting the course of justice, and sentenced to seven years and six months’ imprisonment in total.