Mental Ill-health
| DOI | 10.1177/0264550519876745 |
| Published date | 01 December 2019 |
| Date | 01 December 2019 |
| Subject Matter | In court |
In court
In court
Mental Ill-health
Wrong to promote rehabilitation at expense of punishment: Robbery
Aged in his early 20s and heavily intoxicated, T. approached a vulnerable man in a
park, the victim being his 50s with learning difficulties and schizophrenia, and
demanded money. When V. tried to run away T. chased him, shouting aggres-
sively, and when V. tripped and fell T. held him down and punched him, continuing
to demand money, finally biting off the top of his ear before ‘swaggering off’. He
had been spoken to by police officers shortly beforehand and he was quickly
arrested, being aggressive in reaction, later claiming, completely without founda-
tion, that he had beaten up someone who had raped him. At the time he committed
this assault with intent to rob T. had been on licence in respect of a 30-month term of
imprisonment imposed 20 months earlier for robbery of a shopkeeper at knifepoint
when intoxicated, a crime that in turn had been committed while he was on licence
from a 23-month sentence imposed for dishonesty, driving while disqualified and
breach of a suspended sentence. Two months earlier he had committed criminal
damage. Initially bailed for the new offence he was later recalled for around 6
months following revocation of his most recent licence.
After various delays, T. appeared for trial 2 years following the park crime. His
counsel sought a Goodyear indication. Though assault with intent to rob does not
the subject of any Definitive Guideline, it was common ground that it was akin to
either a Category 1B or 2B offence within the Robbery guidance (2016). The judge
determined to treat it as within Category 2B and said that he would give credit for a
guilty plea of between 15%and 20%, despite lateness, as this would spare a very
vulnerable victim from giving evidence, in which case the maximum sentence would
be 40 months’ imprisonment.
A pre-sentence report (PSR) reported that T.’s childhood had been chaotic, his
mother having served a prison sentence. He had been excluded from school at the
age of 14 and had run away from home at the age of 15, thereafter living on the
streets, associating with older men who introduced him to drug misuse which he
funded through offending. He had amassed around 80 previous convictions, mainly
for acquisitive property offending. He told the probation officer that he had been a
victim of sexual abuse. He was now living with a woman partner with mental health
problems, for whom he acted as carer, thus complicating his capacity to undertake
unpaid work. The PSR author considered that immediate custody ‘would have a
The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
2019, Vol. 66(4) 474–485
ªThe Author(s) 2019
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0264550519876745
journals.sagepub.com/home/prb
To continue reading
Request your trial