R v Jack Hartland

Until superseded by a definitive guideline or a higher-court decision, the sentencing guidance for intentional strangulation in R v Cook [2023] EWCA Crim 452 must be followed. The ordinary starting point is 18 months’ immediate custody. Harm inherent in strangulation prevents a lower starting point based on an apparently limited effect on the victim. Physical or psychological harm beyond that inherent harm may nevertheless aggravate the offence.

For prolonged and violent domestic abuse, totality must reflect the separate criminality and cumulative harm. A community order is inappropriate where the offences substantially pass the custody threshold and rehabilitation alone cannot meet the purposes of sentencing.

The Solicitor General obtained leave to refer as unduly lenient the concurrent two-year community orders imposed at Warwick Crown Court on 21 April 2023.

The respondent had pleaded guilty to controlling or coercive behaviour, intentional strangulation, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm against his former partner. The offences formed part of prolonged domestic abuse, including repeated violence, strangulation, and serious physical and psychological effects on the victim. The sentencing judge treated the controlling behaviour as the lead offence, identified a notional custodial sentence of 32 months, but imposed a community order with a rehabilitation activity requirement after crediting time spent on remand and prospects of rehabilitation.

The central issues were whether that approach was unduly lenient, whether the guidance on intentional strangulation altered the sentencing assessment, and whether a community order without a punitive requirement was lawful or appropriate.

Reference allowed. The concurrent community orders were unduly lenient. The court quashed them and substituted concurrent sentences of three years’ imprisonment.

1. The court accepted the judge’s guideline categorisation of the controlling behaviour and assault offences. The assessment of the strangulation offence by analogy with assault was understandable because the judge had not been referred to R v Cook [2023] EWCA Crim 452. However, Cook should thereafter be followed unless superseded by a definitive guideline or higher authority. Its 18-month starting point applied.
2. The inherent harm of strangulation means that actual harm cannot reduce that starting point. Harm beyond that inherent in the offence may, however, aggravate the sentence on a case-by-case basis. Where strangulation occurs within prolonged coercive conduct and other violence, it may be impossible to allocate particular harm to one offence, but its contribution must be reflected in the aggregate sentence.
3. The judge failed to give due weight to totality. The controlling behaviour was prolonged, involved multiple methods of control and violence, and was committed against a vulnerable victim, at times in the presence of or while she held their child. The separate strangulation and assault required a materially higher aggregate sentence.
4. Each offence substantially passed the custody threshold. Immediate custody was the only appropriate punishment. The community order imposed minimal restriction and rehabilitation alone could not justify it. Time on remand could theoretically contribute to exceptional circumstances under the Sentencing Act 2020, but did not do so here.
5. The judge’s attempt to retain a 32-month prison term in reserve upon breach was an unwarranted form of suspended sentence. The order was also defective because it contained no punitive requirement, although that was secondary because only immediate custody was appropriate.

The substituted sentences were to run concurrently. Time spent on remand counted, and the sentence was ordered to run from the date of the Court of Appeal’s judgment.

• Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) — on a reference by the Solicitor General under section 36 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, gave leave, held the sentence unduly lenient, quashed the community orders and substituted concurrent three-year custodial sentences.
• Crown Court at Warwick — on 21 April 2023 imposed concurrent two-year community orders with a 15-day rehabilitation activity requirement for controlling or coercive behaviour, intentional strangulation, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.