Ayres, R v

On an appeal against sentence, an appellate court will not interfere with a sentencing judge’s evaluative finding that an attempted murder caused serious and long-term psychological harm where that finding was open on the expert evidence and the surrounding circumstances. The absence of complete medical or prison records did not make the evidence incapable of supporting the finding. In a severe and deliberate attempted killing, limited subsequent assistance to the victim may properly carry little mitigating weight.

The appellant, already serving a life sentence for murder, pleaded guilty at the earliest reasonable opportunity to attempted murder after strangling his cellmate with a ligature in prison.

At Norwich Crown Court, the sentencing judge imposed life imprisonment with a minimum term of 10 years. The parties agreed that the offence was a Level 1 attempted murder. The dispute was whether the victim had suffered serious and long-term psychological harm, which supported a 30-year starting point before credit for the guilty plea and the minimum-term calculation.

The appellant challenged that factual finding and submitted that his later attempt to obtain help for the victim had received insufficient weight.

1. Appeal dismissed. The sentencing judge was entitled to find that the attempted murder caused serious and long-term psychological harm.

2. The expert evidence showed that the victim continued to suffer harm about a year after the attack. It recorded symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder, severe depressive symptoms on testing, and the possibility that specialist treatment would be required. The expert appropriately qualified his opinion because he had not seen earlier medical or prison records, but that qualification did not deprive the judge of a proper evidential basis for the finding.

3. The judge was entitled to assess the evidence after hearing oral examination and cross-examination of the expert. The victim’s prior vulnerability and mental-health history did not undermine the conclusion that an attempt to strangle him to death in a locked cell had substantially contributed to the seriousness of the psychological consequences. The appellate court found no basis to interfere with that evaluative conclusion.

4. The appellant’s subsequent attempt to obtain help for the victim carried little weight in mitigation. It followed a severe and intentional attack undertaken with an intent to kill.

5. The 30-year substantive sentence, reduced to 20 years for the early guilty plea and then converted into a 10-year minimum term, could not be faulted.

• Court of Appeal (Criminal Division): dismissed the appeal against the minimum term imposed for attempted murder: [2019] EWCA Crim 610.
• Crown Court at Norwich: on 28 September 2018, imposed life imprisonment with a minimum term of 10 years following the appellant’s guilty plea to attempted murder.