R v Gunning

A defendant who indicates a guilty plea through a locally approved early guilty plea scheme and pleads guilty at the first Crown Court appearance will ordinarily be entitled to the maximum one-third reduction. A proposed basis of plea which is rejected, but is not pursued, does not by itself justify reducing that credit.

When sentencing separate assaults, the court must assess harm and culpability for each offence and apply totality. Repeated violence may aggravate a later assault, but an earlier assault should not be treated as causing greater harm where serious injury was not caused.

The appellant pleaded guilty at the Crown Court at Merthyr Tydfil to two assaults occasioning actual bodily harm against his former girlfriend and to criminal damage. The judge imposed a total of two years’ imprisonment, comprising consecutive terms of 12 months for each assault and a concurrent term for criminal damage.

He appealed against sentence with leave of the single judge. He contended that the first assault had been placed too high within the sentencing assessment, that he should have received full credit for his guilty pleas, and that the total sentence was manifestly excessive.

1. Appeal allowed. The total sentence of two years’ imprisonment was manifestly excessive and was reduced to 18 months.

2. Both assaults involved higher culpability because the appellant head-butted the victim, and immediate custody was unavoidable. The later assault involved greater harm because it repeated violence inflicted only two days earlier. The earlier assault did not involve greater harm, however, because it caused no serious injury. Its appropriate starting point was therefore 12 months, rather than 16 months; the later assault had a starting point of 15 months, subject to totality.

3. The appellant was entitled to full credit for his guilty pleas. He had complied with the locally operating early guilty plea scheme and pleaded guilty at his first Crown Court appearance. Applying the guidance in Caley & Ors [2012] EWCA Crim 2821, that was ordinarily a first reasonable opportunity to plead and could attract the maximum one-third reduction. The abandoned proposed basis of plea did not displace that entitlement.

4. The court quashed the assault sentences and substituted eight months’ imprisonment on count 2 and 10 months’ imprisonment consecutively on count 3. The concurrent 28-day sentence for criminal damage, the restraining order, and the order under section 240 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 remained unchanged.

• Court of Appeal (Criminal Division): Allowed the appeal against sentence and substituted a total sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment.

• Crown Court at Merthyr Tydfil: On 24 October 2012, following guilty pleas to two assaults occasioning actual bodily harm and criminal damage, imposed a total sentence of two years’ imprisonment.