R v Martin Bell
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 22 December 2014 |
| Subject Matter | Criminal |
| Court | Crown Court |
T2014 7570
In the Crown Court at Leeds
The Queen
-v-
Martin Bell
Sentencing Remarks of HHJ Peter Collier QC
19th December 2014
1. Martin Bell, I have to sentence you on your plea to the manslaughter of
Gemma Simpson.
2. That is a plea that has been properly accepted by the prosecution.
3. The reasons for that are first that there is clear evidence that you have suffered
for many years from a personality disorder and that on top of that in 1999 you had
been admitted as an inpatient in hospital for a period of about 9 months under section
2 of the Mental Health Act 1983. You had been admitted because you were suffering
from a psychotic illness and had serious delusional beliefs. Secondly, when you were
discharged some 6 weeks before you killed Gemma Simpson the discharging doctor
recorded “the fact that you had little insight into your illness and that the delusions
have not completely disappeared, are cause for some concern”. It was on the 5th May
2000 you killed Gemma Simpson. The third factor is that the prosecution accept that
there is no good reason to reject your account of the circumstances of the killing
whilst accepting your account of the manner of the killing which has been
corroborated by the evidence now discovered as a result of your admissions. For all
those reasons and I agree with them they have concluded that there would be no
proper basis for a jury to reject your account of the circumstances of the killing and
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