Ramsey & Ors, R v

An extension of time to renew a criminal appeal ordinarily requires a good and exceptional reason. Delay caused by lawyers will not usually suffice, but exceptional unfairness may justify an extension where connected appeals can properly be determined together.

Leave may be granted where new expert evidence arguably makes it in the interests of justice to receive that evidence, while questions of admissibility and statutory conditions remain for the full appeal. Written directions on law are encouraged. A lesser alternative verdict need be left only where the evidence obviously raises it. In sentencing co-offenders of different ages, statutory starting points must be adjusted to achieve a disparity that fairly reflects their age and culpability.

At Sheffield Crown Court, four appellants were convicted of the murder of a 17-year-old who was shot after an earlier stabbing. Two of them, Michael Chattoo and Nigel Ramsey, were also convicted of attempted murder arising from that stabbing. The prosecution alleged that Nigel Ramsey ordered both attacks while in prison.

The Court of Appeal considered renewed applications for leave to appeal against conviction, including a proposed fresh ballistics-evidence ground, and appeals against sentence. It also considered Keisha Mindley-Donaldson’s appeal against consecutive sentences imposed after her guilty pleas to assisting offenders.

The central issues were whether leave should be granted on the fresh-evidence and alternative-verdict grounds, and whether the minimum terms and consecutive sentences were excessive.

1. The court granted Nigel Ramsey an extension of time. The delay reflected an unacceptable lack of urgency by his advisers and would not ordinarily have justified relief. It was nevertheless exceptional that his application could be considered with the timely, related applications of the other defendants, without delaying them. Refusing the extension would have created justified unfairness.

2. Leave to appeal against conviction was granted to all four applicants on the fresh-evidence ground. It was arguable that the interests of justice might require receipt of Mr Arnold’s expert evidence and the later evidence of Dr Robinson. The court did not decide admissibility or any issue under the Criminal Appeal Act 1968. Those matters were left for the full appeal, with directions for further evidence and transcripts.

3. The complaint about written directions to the jury was dismissed. There was no alleged error of law, and providing written legal directions was a proper and encouraged practice. Leave was also granted to Chattoo and Nigel Ramsey on the issue whether an alternative count under section 18 should have been left. Applying the principle in R v Coutts [2006] 1 WLR 2154, the court held that such an alternative is required only where the evidence obviously raises it; the absence of reasons for the trial judge’s refusal made leave appropriate.

4. Nigel Ramsey’s sentence appeal was dismissed. His direction from prison of a planned firearm murder justified the 35-year minimum term.

5. Menzies’s appeal was allowed. A firearm murder could aggravate the sentence of an offender under 18, but age-based starting points must not produce an unjust or irrational disparity between co-offenders. In the circumstances, the 20-year minimum term was too long. It was replaced by a minimum term of 17 years.

6. Mindley-Donaldson’s appeal was dismissed. Her deliberate assistance to those involved in the stabbing and subsequent firearm murder justified consecutive sentences totalling four and a half years. The total was tough but not excessive.

• Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) — by this judgment, [2011] EWCA Crim 872, granted limited leave to appeal against conviction, dismissed the sentence appeals of Nigel Ramsey and Keisha Mindley-Donaldson, and allowed Levan Menzies’s sentence appeal by substituting a 17-year minimum term.

• Crown Court at Sheffield — Griffith-Williams J convicted Chattoo and Nigel Ramsey of attempted murder and convicted Chattoo, both Ramseys and Menzies of murder. Life sentences and minimum terms were imposed.

• Crown Court at Sheffield — HHJ Keen QC sentenced Mindley-Donaldson, following guilty pleas to assisting offenders, to consecutive terms totalling four and a half years’ imprisonment.