R v Bridie Joanna Kehoe
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE,Mr Justice Openshaw,MR JUSTICE OPENSHAW |
| Judgment Date | 08 April 2008 |
| Neutral Citation | [2008] EWCA Crim 819 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) |
| Docket Number | No. 2008/00211/A2 |
| Date | 08 April 2008 |
[2008] EWCA Crim 819
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL CRIMINAL DIVISION
Newcastle Crown Court
Quayside
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 3LA
The Lord Chief Justice Of England And Wales
(Lord Phillips Of Worth Matravers)
Mr Justice Wilkie and
Mr Justice Openshaw
No. 2008/00211/A2
Mr P Cosgrove QC appeared on behalf of the Appellant
Mr D Atkinson appeared on behalf of the Crown
Tuesday 8 April 2008
I will ask Mr Justice Openshaw to give the judgment of the court.
On 8 November 2007, at the Central Criminal Court, before the Recorder of London (His Honour Judge Beaumont QC), on an indictment charging her with murder, the appellant, Bridie Kehoe, pleaded guilty on re-arraignment to the manslaughter of Edward Shaw. Her plea of not guilty to murder was accepted by the prosecution on the grounds of diminished responsibility. On 4 December 2007 she was sentenced to life imprisonment; the period of four years six months was specified under section 82A of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 as being the minimum term which she must serve before being considered for release by the Parole Board (less the 427 days she had spent in custody on rem and ). She now appeals against sentence by leave of the single judge.
The precise sequence of events leading up to the killing of Mr Shaw is not altogether clear. The background can be summarised as follows. 94 Lancaster Road, Ladbroke Grove, provided sheltered housing for those suffering from a variety of social problems. Edward Shaw lived there. He was aged 51. He was an alcoholic. From time to time he led a chaotic and unstructured life. At other times he maintained contact with his family. He always took seriously his duties to his young son to whom he was devoted.
The appellant is aged 43. She has a long history of alcohol abuse and mental illness with which we will deal later. She lived in a flat in the basement of the same house.
Another resident was John Waterman. Some months earlier the appellant alleged that Waterman had sexually assaulted her. She complained (although not to the police at the time) that she had awoken to find him penetrating her with his fingers. She referred to this as “rape”. The appellant, underst and ably, deeply resented the commission of this offence upon her. She took her revenge on Waterman by cutting him with a knife which, fortunately, did not cause him serious injuries. The appellant was only cautioned for this offence.
We move on to Sunday 1 October 2006. A number of fellow alcoholics gathered together at the house to drink. A great deal was drunk. A sample taken from Mr Shaw's body gave a reading of not less than 326mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, being four times the legal limit for driving. Others present in the house sensed that there was an awkward atmosphere between the appellant and Mr Shaw. One of them even saw the appellant hitting him around the head and so they all left. The only living witness to what passed between them is the appellant herself, who was drunk and, as we have said, is mentally ill. She has given a number of conflicting accounts.
At about 8.45pm the appellant rang a friend and said that she had done something bad. She said that she had stabbed Mr Shaw. She said that he had accused her of encouraging Waterman to the extent that the rape was her own fault and that she had “served herself on a plate”. Plainly, she deeply resented and was provoked by this offensive suggestion. The neighbour whom she told that she had stabbed Mr Shaw did not believe her. The appellant therefore called round some other friends. They saw Mr Shaw's body lying in the garden. The appellant said that she had already destroyed the clothes that she had been wearing and had already disposed of the knife, but wanted help to remove the body. The friends refused and one of them called the police.
The police arrived at about 11pm. The appellant would not let them into the house. A police officer went into the back garden and saw Mr Shaw's body which had a number of obvious stab wounds to it. The pathologist later found a dozen wounds to the neck, chest and abdomen, some penetrating fully 14cm. There were also a number of scratches, bruises and abrasions to his head, indicating that he had been hit many times. There were a number of defensive injuries to his h and s and arms.
The appellant was arrested. In interview she refused to answer questions but gave a prepared account in which she denied any knowledge of the killing.
The appellant is aged 44. She has a number of significant previous convictions. In June 1990 she was convicted of unlawful wounding at Nantwich Magistrates' Court, for which she was conditionally discharged. She had stabbed her husb and twice in the abdomen, which fortunately required just one stitch to repair. In March 1993 she was convicted of an affray, having taken up a kitchen knife to br and ish at police officers during the course of another domestic dispute. In July 2005 she was convicted of common assault, when she hit a man on the head with her shoe. In August 2006 she was cautioned for the attack with a knife on Mr Waterman, to which we have already referred.
There were two psychiatric reports. Dr Nayani, retained by the defence, detailed the appellant's “miserable and deprived childhood” marked by emotional, physical and sexual abuse. That background had distorted her psychological development in such a way as to render her prone to a variety of psychological disorders in adult life. She had suffered from an abusive relationship with her former husb and. She had great difficulty adjusting to the loss of her children. Dr Nayani described her as a damaged and vulnerable woman who in recent years had extensive involvement with the clinical mental health team at her local hospital. She had become alcohol dependent. She was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after she was sexually assaulted by Mr Waterman a short time before the killing, as we have already set out. Accordingly, he thought that the defence of diminished responsibility was available to her.
Another report from Dr Joseph, retained by the prosecution, confirmed that the appellant had suffered considerable...
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