R v Wootton and Anor
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judge | Morgan LCJ |
| Judgment Date | 2014,14 October 2014 |
| Neutral Citation | [2014] NICA 69 |
| Year | 2014 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Northern Ireland) |
| Date | 14 October 2014 |
1
Neutral Citation No. [2014] NICA 69
Ref:
MOR9413
Judgment: approved by the Court for handing down
Delivered:
14/10/2014
(subject to editorial corrections)*
IN HER MAJESTY’S COURT OF APPEAL IN NORTHERN IRELAND
________
THE QUEEN
-v-
JOHN PAUL WOOTTON AND BRENDAN McCONVILLE
________
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTION’S REFERENCE
(NUMBERS 2 & 3 of 2012)
________
Before: Morgan LCJ, Higgins LJ and Coghlin LJ
________
MORGAN LCJ (delivering the judgment of the court)
[1] Brendan McConville and John Paul Wootton were convicted by Girvan LJ,
sitting in the Crown Court without a jury, of the murder of Constable Stephen
Carroll on 9 March 2009 and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
Wootton was further convicted of attempting to collect information likely to be of
use to terrorists. For their parts in the murder, the learned trial judge sentenced
McConville to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years and sentenced
Wootton, due to his age, to detention at Her Majesty’s pleasure with a minimum
term of 14 years. In a judgment handed down on 29 May 2014 ([2014] NICA 41) this
court dismissed each of the offender’s appeals against conviction. The Director of
Public Prosecutions now seeks leave to refer the sentences to the Court of Appeal
pursuant to section 36 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 on the grounds they are each
unduly lenient. Mr McGrory QC appeared with Mr Russell, Mr Macdonald QC
appeared with Mr Devine for McConville and Mr Harvey QC appeared with Mr Fox
for Wootton. We are grateful to all counsel for their helpful written and oral
submissions.
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7 cases
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R v Haggarty (Gary)
...case turns on its particular facts. [124] In particular I have considered the cases of R v Fulton [2007] NICC 2, R v Wooton & McConville [2014] NICA 69, R v Stewart & Stewart [2010] NICC 8 and R v Irwin [2008] NISLT 5. [125] I did consider, having regard to the totality of the defendant’s o......
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R v McClements (Piper John) and Gillon (Matthew Brian)
...behaviour should be taken into account.” [66] The circumstances of this case can be distinguished from the case of Wootton and Another [2014] NICA 69 in which the court was dealing with a defendant who had committed a terrorist murder when just two months short of his 18th birthday. It can ......
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R v Ward (Mark) (No2: Tariff)
...General’s Reference Number 6 of 2004 (Doyle) [2004] NICA 33 at [22], R v Hamilton [2008] NICA 27 at [28] and R v Wooton and Others [2014] NICA 69 at [20]. Kerr LCJ said the following in Hamilton. “[28] While the views of the legislature in another part of the United Kingdom of the circumsta......
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Queen v Christopher Robinson
...see Attorney General’s Reference Number 6 of 2004 (Doyle) [2004] NICA 33, R v Hamilton [2008] NICA 27, R v Wootton and McConville [2014] NICA 69 and R v Ward [2019] NICA 18. The trial judge also made reference to it and applied it to the particular facts of this case which was the correct a......
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