R v Hodgson

JurisdictionEngland & Wales
JudgeMR. JUSTICE MacKENNA
Judgment Date26 September 1967
Judgment citation (vLex)[1967] EWCA Crim J0926-2
CourtCourt of Appeal (Criminal Division)
Docket NumberNo. 1237/67
Date26 September 1967
Regina
and
Rowland Jack Forster Hodgson

[1967] EWCA Crim J0926-2

Before:

The Master of the Rolls (Lord Denning)

Mr. Justice Widgery

and

Mr. Justice MacKenna

No. 1237/67

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL

CRIMINAL DIVISION

Royal Courts of Justice

THE APPELLANT did not appear and was not represented.

MR. JUSTICE MacKENNA
1

This is an appeal by leave of Mr. Justice Waller against three sentences of life imprisonment passed by Mr. Justice Cusack in respect of two acts of rape and one of buggery committed on two women whom the Appellant attacked late at night in public places. Two other sentences also under appeal are for two years and four years respectively, that of two years for an assault on one of the two women occasioning her actual bodily harm, and the sentence of four years for an assault on a third woman with intent to rob.

2

The Appellant, who is 23 years of age, has been convicted twice of various assaults on women, one for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and the other for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

3

The form of the application drafted by the Appellant was for leave to appeal against sentence and as I have said that leave was given. One of the reasons given to support the application was that he had been wrongly convicted of the offences of rape. This reason can be dealt with very shortly. The evidence included a confession which the Appellant had signed but which he withdrew at the trial. The Jury were entitled to accept the police evidence about the making of the confession and to act upon it. That evidence was indeed overwhelming.

4

The only question in the case is whether sentences of life imprisonment were justified in this case. The trial Judge's reasons for passing this sentence can be gathered from the transcript of the proceedings. On being given the Appellant's previous record, he put this question to the police officer, "It seems he specialises in attacks on women and girls" to which the officer answered, "It would appear so". In passing sentence, he said: "It is difficult to know, having heard the evidence I have heard with regard to the way you treated Kiss Greenwood and Mrs. Stewart whether you are to be regarded as a man or a monster. It is quite clear that the public, in particular women and girls, must be protected...

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141 cases
  • R v Chapman
    • United Kingdom
    • Court of Appeal (Criminal Division)
    • 22 July 1999
    ...has committed an offence grave enough to merit a very long sentence. His prime authority for that proposition is the well-known case of R v Hodgson (1968) 52 Cr App R 113, and in particular the oft-quoted passage at page 114 where MacKenna J giving the judgment of the court said: "When the......
  • R v John Renner (Aka Remmer) Dillon
    • United Kingdom
    • Court of Appeal (Criminal Division)
    • 12 October 2012
    ...has laid down the conditions which must be satisfied before a discretionary life sentence can be imposed by a court. The leading case is R v Hodgson [1968] 52 Cr App R 113. That was a decision of this court which, somewhat curiously, was composed on that occasion of Lord Denning MR and Widg......
  • R v Michael Ivan Cooper
    • United Kingdom
    • Court of Appeal (Criminal Division)
    • 28 July 2006
    ...as long as the eighteen years suggested by the judge. 16 The criteria for imposing a discretionary life sentence in 1997 were drawn from R v Hodgson (1967) 52 Cr App R 113. They are summarised in the then current edition of Archbold at paragraph 5–189 as follows: "…. a sentence of life impr......
  • R v Kelly (Edward)
    • United Kingdom
    • Court of Appeal (Criminal Division)
    • 15 December 1998
    ...weapon was used in this later offence, but it is fair to say that the youths had stones and one, indeed, had a stick. I do not see that the Hodgson criteria are relevant in the consideration that I have to have in passing the sentence that I do today. I take the view that in the circumstanc......
  • Request a trial to view additional results
7 books & journal articles
  • Treason Versus Outraging Public Decency: Over-Criminalisation and Terrorism Panics
    • United Kingdom
    • Sage Journal of Criminal Law, The No. 84-1, February 2020
    • 1 February 2020
    ...terrorism has been put in action and its failure rests on75. R v Khan [2010] 1 Cr. App. R. (S.) 216 at 217-218 citing R v Hodgson (1968) 52 Cr. App. R. 113.76. R. (on the application of Stott) v Secretary of State for Justice [2018] 3 W.L.R. 1831.77. C Slobogin, ‘A Jurisprudence of Dangerou......
  • Divisional Court
    • United Kingdom
    • Sage Journal of Criminal Law, The No. 55-2, May 1991
    • 1 May 1991
    ...established for determining the correctness of theoriginal imposition of a discretionary sentence of life imprisonment:see R v Hodgson (1968) 52 CrAppR 113, which enunciated thetest which has been repeated on several occasions by that court.Although the imposition of a life sentence can be ......
  • Criminal Procedure, Evidence and Sentencing
    • Singapore
    • Singapore Academy of Law Annual Review No. 2004, December 2004
    • 1 December 2004
    ...courts in Neo Man Lee v PP[1991] SLR 146 had broadly endorsed the conditions justifying life imprisonment as set out in R v Hodgson(1968) 52 Cr App R 113: (a) The offence or offences are in themselves grave enough to require a very long sentence; (b) It appears from the nature of the offenc......
  • SENTENCING MENTALLY DISORDERED OFFENDERS
    • Singapore
    • Singapore Academy of Law Journal No. 2011, December 2011
    • 1 December 2011
    ...minimum of 13 years four months (due to remission). 100 See reg 125 of the Prisons Regulations (Cap 247, Rg 2, 2002 Rev Ed). 101 (1968) 52 Cr App R 113 at 114 approvingly cited in Neo Man Lee v PP [1991] 1 SLR(R) 918. 102 See, eg, PP v Lim Hock Hin [2002] 2 SLR(R) 447 (where a man slashed h......
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