Attorney General's Reference (Nos. 32 and 33 of 1995) Pegg (Shane) and Martin (Mark)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE |
| Judgment Date | 27 February 1996 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [1996] EWCA Crim J0227-3 |
| Date | 27 February 1996 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) |
| Docket Number | No. 95/4101/R1 & 95/4102/R1 |
[1996] EWCA Crim J0227-3
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL CRIMINAL DIVISION
Before: The Lord Chief Justice of England (Lord Taylor of Gosforth) Mr Justice Curtis and Mr Justice Gage
No. 95/4101/R1 & 95/4102/R1
95/4250/S1 & 95/4322/S1
ATTORNEY GENERAL'S REFERENCE Nos. 32 & 33 of 1995
UNDER SECTION 36 OF
MR JOHN BEVAN appeared on behalf of the ATTORNEY GENERAL
MISS GILLIAN ETHERTON appeared on behalf of THE OFFENDER MARTIN
MR J D LLOYD appeared on behalf of THE OFFENDER PEGG
Tuesday 27 February 1996
THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICEThese are two applications, pursuant to section 36 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, by Her Majesty's Attorney General who seeks leave to refer to this court for review sentences which he regards as unduly lenient. We grant leave in each case.
The two offenders are Mark Anthony Martin, aged 25, and Shane Robin Pegg, aged 20. For their part, each has sought to suggest that so far from being unduly lenient the sentences passed upon them were too severe. Accordingly, there is before us an application for leave to appeal against sentence by Pegg and an appeal against sentence by Martin.
There was another offender involved with them, Neil Alan Underhill, aged twenty. The three men were charged on an indictment containing five counts. On 23 February 1995 Pegg pleaded guilty to two offences of burglary. On 1 May 1995 he pleaded guilty to an offence of aggravated burglary, which alleged that he had committed burglary and had taken with him two knives. He asked for 35 offences to be taken into consideration. Of those 12 were burglaries or attempted burglaries of residential premises. On 5 May Martin was convicted of one offence of aggravated burglary and one offence of attempted robbery. The count of aggravated burglary in his case and also in the case of Underhill alleged not merely that they had taken weapons with them but that they had caused grievous bodily harm, a factor not alleged against Pegg.
On 5 June Pegg was sentenced to two years detention in a Young Offender Institution on each of the two counts of burglary, concurrently. For the offence of aggravated burglary he was sentenced to two years detention consecutive, making a total of four years detention. Martin was sentenced to seven years imprisonment on each count concurrently for the offences of attempted robbery and of aggravated burglary. Those sentences were ordered to run concurrently with a total sentence of three-and-a-half years imposed upon him in December 1994, which comprised three years imprisonment for robbery and six months imprisonment consecutively for a Bail Act offence. Underhill was convicted by a jury of the same offences of aggravated burglary and attempted robbery. On 5 June he was sentenced to four years detention in a Young Offender Institution concurrently on each count. He is not before the court at present, although the Attorney General will, we understand, seek leave to refer his sentence for review. The reason for his not being before the court is that he is in the process of seeking leave to appeal against his conviction. The facts of the offences are as follows. The victim of the aggravated burglary and attempted robbery was a 73-year-old man, who lived alone. The local rumour was that he had a lot of money. It seems to have been wrong. However, the offenders believed it. They decided to break into his house at night whilst he was asleep. Some time before 1.30 in the early hours of Monday 13 June the victim was awoken to find the three offenders in his bedroom, all wearing balaclava helmets. Underhill went to the victim's bed and began immediately punching him and demanding money. The victim fell to the floor. A pillow was placed over his head. He tried to protect himself, but he was repeatedly kicked and punched by Underhill. Meanwhile, the others, Martin and Pegg, were searching the premises, looking for money. Underhill used a large carving knife to slash at the victim and to stab at him. He was wounded in the head, the arms and the legs. Whilst doing this Underhill uttered threats. He threatened to rip the victim's liver out and to kill him. The attack lasted about a quarter of an hour. There was a point —we are not certain what point —when Pegg re-entered the room and pleaded with Underhill to stop attacking the victim. In the end the three men left empty handed.
They went to Martin's flat, which was nearby. Martin's girlfriend was there. She gave evidence that she saw Underhill burn a heavily bloodstained T-shirt he had been wearing. His jeans were washed in the bath, rendering the bath water red from the blood emerging from them. The offenders laughed on their return to the house and laughed again when the attack was reported on the television.
Meanwhile the victim had been seriously injured. It took him five hours to crawl to the telephone in order to summon help. He said that he was bleeding badly from his wounds and thought that he was going to die. He remembered crawling to the bathroom and after some hours pulling himself to his feet and getting to the telephone in the hall. In a later statement he said that he had not stayed at that address since the attack. He wants to sell the house and he still dreams about the attack which he suffered. His physical injuries caused him to be in hospital until 21 July 1994. They were numerous. We have seen the photograph of his face taken in the hospital. There was subconjunctival haemorrhage and his eyesight was affected. He had bruising on the left ear and cheek, a cut to the left eyebrow, a cut to the back of the left forearm so deep as to expose the muscle, an extensive flap-type wound 8 x 4cm to the left hand, exposing the tendons. Those which served the ring and middle fingers were completely cut. There was a stab to the left loin and a stab over the left groin. There were three stabs to the left thigh, one of which penetrated to, but fortunately not into, the femoral artery. Had it penetrated that artery, according to the doctor, the victim would have been likely to die. There was a stab to the left buttock and bruising all over the chest and the abdomen.
Despite that catalogue of injuries in a man of 73 we are told that the victim has since made a good physical recovery...
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