R v Shane Fitzpatrick

When a court passes a life sentence fixed by law, it must set the minimum term after taking account of the seriousness of the offence and any statutory remand credit. The credit must be calculated precisely and stated in open court. A formula leaving the deduction as an unspecified period is not a lawful pronouncement. The sentencing judge should announce the resulting minimum term in years and days and identify the qualifying periods used in the calculation. An error of this kind cannot be corrected administratively. The proper route is an appeal, on which the sentence may be quashed and correctly re-pronounced.

R v Shane Fitzpatrick concerned a non-counsel application referred to the Full Court. The applicant had been convicted of murder and sentenced at Preston Crown Court by David Clarke J on 13 July 2006 to life imprisonment with a 20-year minimum term. The judge expressed the term as 20 years less any time spent in custody, without stating the remand days. The figure was later disputed and accepted as 244 days. The central issues were whether the defect could be corrected and what sentence should be pronounced.

Appeal allowed. The court granted an extension of 6,689 days and leave to appeal. It quashed the sentence and substituted a life sentence with a minimum term of 19 years and 121 days.

1. Section 269 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 required the court, when imposing a life sentence fixed by law, to set the appropriate minimum term by taking account of the seriousness of the offence and the effect of any remand-credit direction. Section 240 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 required qualifying remand days to count as time served and required the number of days credited to be stated in open court.
2. The sentencing judge’s statement that the minimum term was 20 years “less any time spent in custody” failed to specify the precise credit and was an error. The current practice, identified in R v Sesay [2024] EWCA Crim 483, is for the judge to perform the calculation, announce the resulting term in years and days, and identify the remand days or other qualifying periods taken into account.
3. As R v Sesay confirms, an error of this kind cannot be cured administratively. The appropriate course is an appeal against sentence. The correct remand credit was 244 days, producing a minimum term of 19 years and 121 days from the notional term of 20 years.

• Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) — In R v Shane Fitzpatrick, [2025] EWCA Crim 979, the court granted an extension of time and leave to appeal, allowed the appeal, quashed the sentence and substituted the correct minimum term.
• Crown Court at Preston — On 13 July 2006, David Clarke J sentenced the applicant to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years, expressed as less any time spent in custody. The case number was T20057540.