PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Sentencing: Appeals (22 July 2020)

The Court of Appeal has recently increased the sentences upon a reference by the Law Officers in the following cases. In the first, the offender Habte stabbed a lone female who was a stranger to him: his sentence was increased to reflect a finding of dangerousness, to one of five years’ detention with a three year licence extension. In a case of manslaughter, the offender Taiwo’s sentence was increased to seven years’ two months imprisonment, building on another case the Law Officers referred which emphasises the seriousness of “one-punch” attacks, Coyle. Most recently, the sentence of a Manchester man who raped his 15 year old girlfriend when he was 19 was referred to the Court and increased to three years’ imprisonment.