Regina v Claire Victoria Charlton

A statutory minimum sentence may be avoided where, viewing the case as a whole, particular circumstances relating to the offence or offender make it unjust. The assessment must include the seriousness and aggravating features, personal mitigation and the cumulative effect of material circumstances.

An existing fact discovered after sentence can materially affect that assessment. Pregnancy may make imprisonment a substantially heavier punishment, support rehabilitation, and require consideration of the rights of children who may otherwise be born in prison. Those considerations, combined with substantial mitigation, can justify replacing a mandatory custodial term with a suspended sentence and rehabilitative requirements.

After a jury convicted Claire Charlton of her third domestic burglary, the Crown Court at St Albans imposed the three-year minimum under section 314 of the Sentencing Code on 17 September 2021.

She sought leave to appeal, arguing that the recorder had given insufficient weight to her drug rehabilitation and efforts to maintain contact with her daughter. After sentence, she learned that she was pregnant with twins. The central issue was whether the pregnancy, combined with the other mitigation, made the statutory minimum unjust and the sentence manifestly excessive.

Lord Justice Holroyde, delivering the judgment of the Court, granted an extension of time and leave to appeal. The appeal was allowed.

1. The offence was serious. The harm to the elderly victims, the applicant’s previous convictions and the fact that she was on licence for a burglary sentence were substantial aggravating features. The recorder was entitled to place the case at the top of the relevant category 2 range before considering personal mitigation.
2. The mitigation was nevertheless substantial. The applicant had a longstanding drug problem, had previously achieved a significant period of abstinence, was complying with her licence, was using prescribed methadone and was attempting to maintain her relationship with her daughter.
3. Under section 314 of the Sentencing Code, the statutory minimum could be avoided where particular circumstances relating to the offence or offender made it unjust to impose that sentence in all the circumstances. The recorder was entitled to decide the issue on the information available at the sentencing hearing.
4. The pregnancy was an important existing fact which had subsequently been established and which was unknown through no fault of the applicant. It would make imprisonment a far heavier punishment, could increase her motivation to remain drug free, and required regard to the rights of the children who, on the existing order, would be born in prison. When considered cumulatively with the other mitigation, those circumstances made the minimum sentence unjust.
5. The three-year sentence was quashed. A sentence of two years’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, was substituted, together with a nine-month drug rehabilitation requirement, a 15-day rehabilitation activity requirement and the statutory surcharge of £140.

1. Court of Appeal (Criminal Division): in [2021] EWCA Crim 2006, the court extended time, granted leave to appeal, allowed the appeal and substituted a suspended two-year sentence with rehabilitation requirements.
2. Crown Court at St Albans: following conviction by a jury for domestic burglary, the recorder sentenced the applicant to three years’ imprisonment on 17 September 2021.