Court of Appeal

AuthorSian Dickson
Date01 April 2018
Published date01 April 2018
DOI10.1177/0022018318772199
Subject MatterCase Notes
CLJ772199 123..126 Case Note
The Journal of Criminal Law
2018, Vol. 82(2) 123–126
Court of Appeal
ª The Author(s) 2018
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0022018318772199
journals.sagepub.com/home/clj
Coercion, Control and Assault:
The Importance of Proactive Policing
and Judicial Standards in s. 76 Prosecutions
R v Conlon (Robert Joseph James)
Keywords
Actual bodily harm, assault, coercive and controlling behaviour, domestic violence, domestic abuse, perverting the
course of justice, sentence length, seriousness of offence
On 19 May 2017, Conlon (C) was sentenced to a total of 4½ years’ imprisonment, which was made up of
4 years for coercive and controlling behaviour in an intimate or family relationship, 16 months, running
concurrently, for assault occasioning actual bodily harm and 6 months’ imprisonment, running con-
secutively, for perverting the course of justice. C was also made subject to a restraining order under s. 5
of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 to run indefinitely. The order excluded C from the county of
Sussex with the only exception granted for visits to his mother. The visits were ordered to be notified to
the police 48 h prior to commencement, detailing the date and exact time and duration of visit. With
leave of a single judge, C sought to appeal his sentence.
C began a relationship with the complainant in September 2015. It was noted that from an early stage
C had been controlling and violent towards the complainant. Between September and November 2015,
the police were called numerous time by the complainant, her mother or the neighbours. Each time the
complainant either refused to make a statement or retracted statements given, having been ordered to do
so by C. During October and November of 2015, C was arrested twice for assaulting the complainant.
The second occasion allowed the complainant the opportunity to tell the police that C controlled every
aspect of her life. He told her what to wear, how to style her hair, limited her contact with friends and
work colleagues and checked her phone regularly. While on police bail for the second assault, C attacked
the complainant again. This assault followed a night out, during which the complainant had spoken to
another man at the bar. C became very angry and the complainant left the bar alone. She returned home
where C arrived shortly after and began punching her to the face and kicking her to the body. The police
attended and C remarked that he would never hit a woman, denied any violence and told the police that
this, like previous complaints, would not go anywhere. Officers noticed the complainant had injuries to
her cheeks, arms and fingers, her neck was in a brace and clumps of her hair had been pulled from her
head. C was arrested for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The indictment charging coercive and controlling...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT