In court
| Published date | 01 March 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02645505241233829 |
| Date | 01 March 2024 |
| Subject Matter | In court |
In court
Nigel Stone, Visiting Fellow in the School of Psychology, University of East Anglia,
reviews recent appeal judgments and other judicial developments that inform senten-
cing and early release.
Burglary
Prolific house burglar: Hope of rehabilitation
In August 2022 S. burgled the home of a woman aged 74, in the daytime while she
was out, entering through an insecure downstairs window. Stolen items included a
large quantity of jewellery of considerable sentimental value and a credit card. The
defendant was caught through his use of the card in a nearby shop. He admitted
another burglary of that kind committed the previous day and in due course
asked for seven other burglaries to be taken into consideration. Aged 34, the
defendant had a substantial record for residential burglary from 2010 and had
incurred a four-year sentence in 2014 and a 57-month sentence in 2016. In
August 2022 he had been convicted of assault on an emergency worker. He was
now liable to the three-year minimum term provisions under the Sentencing Act
2020 s314.
Following his guilty plea on 17 November 2022, he was considered a possible
candidate for the C3 project (the Crime Free Community Desistance Programme),
run by the police and designed to rehabilitate offenders, directed particularly at
repeat domestic burglars. The sentence was adjourned for him to be assessed,
though the judge made clear that the adjournment did not amount to any kind of
promise as to the eventual outcome. During the assessment, he admitted a further
six offences of that nature, including one committed in 2019 when he was on
licence deriving from his 2016 term, which would otherwise have remained
unsolved. Some stolen items had been recovered.
When he came back before the Crown Court (and a different judge) in February
2023, a detailed report from a police officer recommended that his sentence should
be deferred for four months to allow him to undertake C3, During that time strict con-
ditions would require him to wear a GPS tag, be drug-tested at least three times a
week, attend appointments organised by the National Probation Service or other
organisations and take part in restorative justice meetings if appropriate. One of
The Journal of Communit
y
and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
2024, Vol. 71(1) 96–107
© The Author(s) 2024
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DOI: 10.1177/02645505241233829
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