R v ABQ

For grave multiple sexual offences, an extended sentence must still contain the shortest custodial term commensurate with the seriousness of the offending. A total custodial term exceeding about 30 years after trial will be comparatively rare. Mental disorder may reduce culpability, but the reduction must reflect the offender’s actual understanding, voluntary participation and ability to refuse the offending.

An unsuccessful factual basis advanced at a Newton hearing will normally reduce guilty-plea credit. Where a hospital order is proposed, the court must assess treatment, causal connection, punishment and public protection. A hospital disposal is not appropriate merely because it offers better treatment or adequate risk management. Sound reasons must justify departure from a penal sentence where severe punishment remains necessary.

ABQ pleaded guilty in the Crown Court at Ipswich to 14 grave sexual offences against her two young children, committed jointly in substantial part with D2 over almost a year. Following a Newton hearing which rejected her assertion that D2 had blackmailed or threatened her, HH Judge Overbury imposed an extended sentence of 30 years, comprising 22 years’ custody and an eight-year extended licence period.

ABQ appealed against sentence, contending that the total term was excessive, that she should not have been found dangerous, and that her mental disorders warranted a hospital order with a restriction order. She sought to rely on fresh psychiatric evidence. The central issues were the proper total custodial term, the effect of her disorders on culpability, dangerousness, and the appropriate penal or hospital disposal.

Appeal allowed in part. The court reduced the total custodial term from 22 years to 19 years. It refused the renewed challenge to dangerousness and rejected the proposed hospital disposal.

1. Applying the approach in R v AYO & Ors [2022] EWCA Crim 1271, the court held that the statutory requirement of the shortest term commensurate with seriousness remained decisive, however grave the offending. A 27-year custodial term after trial would have been appropriate for an adult offender without ABQ’s mental disorders. Her disorders reduced culpability to some extent, particularly because they made her susceptible to exploitation, but her knowledge of the pain and distress caused to her children, and her choice to comply with D2, precluded any substantial reduction. The proper term after trial was therefore 22 years.

2. The judge should not have allowed full one-third credit if he had done so. ABQ’s rejected Newton-hearing account was central rather than peripheral. The normal consequence was that the available guilty-plea credit should be halved. About 15 per cent was appropriate, producing a custodial term of 19 years.

3. Dangerousness was a matter for the court, not the experts. Although ABQ would not again have care of her own children, there remained a significant risk that she could come under the influence of another sexually deviant man and cause serious harm to other children. The original finding was therefore justified.

4. Applying R v Vowles [2015] EWCA Crim 45, the court considered treatment need, attribution, punishment, public protection and the available statutory disposals under the Mental Health Act 1983. A hybrid sentence under section 45A was unsuitable. A hospital and restriction order under sections 37 and 41 could offer treatment and sufficient protection, but it contained no punitive element and offered no better public protection than an extended sentence with supervision and existing protective orders. Severe punishment was required, and there were no sound reasons to depart from a penal sentence.

The court quashed the relevant sentences and substituted concurrent extended sentences, including 27 years on count 1 comprising 19 years’ custody and eight years’ extended licence. The remaining sentences and ancillary orders remained in force.

• Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) — In [2024] EWCA Crim 310, the court allowed the sentence appeal to a limited extent, substituted reduced extended sentences, and refused the challenges to dangerousness and to the proposed hospital disposal.
• Crown Court at Ipswich — On 27 April 2021, HH Judge Overbury imposed a 30-year extended sentence comprising 22 years’ custody and an eight-year extended licence period following ABQ’s guilty pleas.