The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 introduced significant changes to sentencing law and came into force on 14 July 2008. Consequently, anyone falling to be sentenced after that date will be dealt with under the new regime.

 

As a result, where an adult Defendant is convicted of a serious offence and the Court is satisfied that the Defendant is dangerous but a life sentence is either not available or not justified, a sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection, and Extended Sentence or any other lawful sentence may be imposed.

 

If an IPP is imposed, the minimum term must be for at least 2 years unless the Defendant has a previous conviction for an offence listed in the new Schedule 15A to the 2003 Act, in which case there is no minimum.

 

If an Extended Sentence is imposed, the appropriate custodial term must be at least 4 years unless there is a previous Schedule 15A conviction.

 

Where the offence is not a serious specified one the Court may impose an Extended Sentence or any other lawful sentence, but again for an Extended Sentence the appropriate custodial term must be at least 4 years unless there is a previous Schedule 15A conviction.

 

The Dangerousness criteria remain a two-part test, i.e. the significant risk of the offender committing further specified offences (whether or not serious) and the presence of a significant risk of serious harm to members of the public being caused by such offences.

 

It is worth noting that the existence or non-existence of previous convictions does not determine whether an offender is dangerous – it is merely one of the factors to be considered, along with any other information about the Defendant.

 

CRAIG JONES.