R v Mason Martin

When sentencing a child, the seriousness of the offence remains the starting point, but the exercise must be individualistic and focused on the child. Youth, maturity, welfare, personal circumstances and the applicable guidelines require proper weight. Deterrence may form part of sentencing a child, particularly in serious offending, but it must be balanced against those child-focused considerations. Where section 250 of the Sentencing Act 2020 does not apply, any guilty-plea reduction must be applied to a total detention and training order of no more than 24 months, subject to relevant exceptions. On appeal, the question is whether the sentence was manifestly excessive or wrong in principle.

The applicant, aged 17 when he offended, pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court to possessing an offensive weapon contrary to section 1 of the Prevention of Crime Act 1953 and violent disorder contrary to section 2(1) of the Public Order Act 1986. He received a total 22-month detention and training order. He had been involved in an armed confrontation between rival drug dealers which resulted in the death of a co-defendant.

An application for leave to appeal was referred to the full court. The grounds concerned youth and maturity, the pre-sentence report and proposed youth rehabilitation order, guideline starting points, mitigation, totality, deterrence and the statutory 24-month limit. The central issues were whether custody was appropriate and whether the sentence was manifestly excessive or wrong in principle.

Application for leave to appeal dismissed.

1. The sentencing judge had not addressed the applicant’s circumstances in the detail contemplated by paragraph 1.2 of the Sentencing Children and Young People guideline. That did not make the sentence wrong in principle. The appellate court considered the relevant matters for itself, applying the requirement that sentencing be individualistic and focused on the child. The sentence was less than half that imposed on the adult co-defendant, and the grounds concerning youth, immaturity, the pre-sentence report and the proposed youth rehabilitation order were rejected.
2. Deterrence is not excluded when sentencing children. Section 57(2)(b) of the Sentencing Act 2020 identifies crime reduction, including deterrence, as a purpose of sentencing adults. For children, section 37 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1988 identifies prevention of offending as the principal aim of the youth justice system, and section 58 of the Sentencing Act 2020 preserves the duty to have regard to that aim. Those provisions do not prevent deterrence from being considered, but an appropriate focus and balance under the child sentencing guideline are required. The seriousness of the knife offending and the resulting fatality entitled the judge to conclude that a non-custodial sentence was inappropriate.
3. The 24-month limit was also material. The guideline permits a detention and training order of up to 24 months in the circumstances described by paragraph 5.14. Section 250 of the Sentencing Act 2020 did not apply to either offence. Accordingly, the guilty-plea reduction had to be applied to a total sentence of no more than 24 months, subject to exceptions not relevant here, consistently with R v March [2002] EWCA Crim 551 and [2002] 2 Cr.App.R (S) 98, and R v Dalby [2005] EWCA Crim 1292 and [2006] 1 Cr.App.R (S) 38. Any possible imprecision in the judge’s arithmetic did not create an arguable ground.
4. The adult guideline starting points had not been adopted as the applicant’s starting points; the notional sentences were below those starting points. The mitigation and totality grounds therefore failed. Consecutive sentences were permissible because the total sentence complied with the totality principle.

1. Court of Appeal (Criminal Division): The full court dismissed the application for leave to appeal against sentence on 28 March 2025: [2025] EWCA Crim 494.
2. Crown Court at Manchester: On 24 November 2024, the court imposed a total 22-month detention and training order, comprising 18 months for violent disorder and four months for possessing an offensive weapon.