Courts-Martial Appeal Court
| Author | JA Coutts |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201839806200504 |
| Published date | 01 October 1998 |
| Date | 01 October 1998 |
| Published By | Sage Publications, Inc. |
| Subject Matter | Courts-Martial Appeal Court |
COURTS-MARTIAL APPEAL
COURT
APPEAL
FROM SENTENCE BY
COURT-MARTIAL
R v Love
In imposing a sentence following a conviction before a court-martial, the
sentencer will obviously have to take into consideration matters which will
not normally be factors taken into account by the justices, the Crown
Court or the Court
of
Appeal. The assessment of the seriousness
of
the
offence has to be in the context
of
service life and the sentencer will have
to take into account the question whether the proposed sentence is
appropriate for the purpose
of
maintaining the discipline, efficiency and
morale of service life, with the result that acourt-martial will have to pay
more regard to the purely deterrent aspect
of
the sentence than would be
required of any other criminal court. Before the amendment of s 8 of the
Courts-Martial Appeals Act 1968 by s 17
of
the Armed Forces Act 1996,
the jurisdiction
of
the courts-martial was self-contained; but in 1996 there
was introduced what Simon Brown LJ termed in R v Love
[1998]
I Cr App
R 458 'a new and unusual jurisdiction'. The novelty of the appeal in Rv
Love led the court to make 'certain observations' which are in the nature
of guidelines which are aimed primarily at emphasising that the peculiarity
of the jurisdiction of the Courts-Martial Appeal Court lies in the fact that
those who are concerned with the imposing and confirming of the sentence
are generally much better placed than those in the Appeal Court to assess
the factors which are peculiar to a sentence passed under that regime.
In that case, a staff sergeant in the military police on 'close protection'
duty at the British Embassy at Beirut pleaded guilty to sending indecent
and obscene material through the post contrary to s II (2) of the Post
Office Act 1953. The letters came to light when the police were investigating
computer and drugs offences
of
which the suspect was later convicted.
When interviewed he immediately admitted everything charged against
him. He was described as 'outstanding' by the ambassador and by the
officer in command, who were prepared to have him back in Beirut. He
was also so described by his immediate commanding officer, who, however,
did
not
want to see him back. The court-martial, although accepting that
he was 'outstanding' and that the letters related to fantasies, not to actual
sexual relations with children or dogs, nevertheless sentenced him to be
dismissed from HM Forces, with an automatic reduction to the ranks, on
the ground that it would be 'impossible' for anyone guilty
of
the charges
to remain serving.
Before considering the details
of
the case, the court indicated what its
approach to the new right
of
appeal against sentence should be.
It
observed
that the penalties available to a court-martial were different from those
usually available to a criminal court and it was remarked that the sentence
was more likely than not to have a wider impact on the offender than is
usual. (He lost, for example, £168,000 in pension rights.) More striking is
449
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