In the crown court at Warwick
Before:
Mr Justice Wall
Between:
R
-v-
Chase Kelly
SENTENCING REMARKS
- You may sit until I reach the end of my remarks.
- In the early hours of 1 June last year Mildred Whitmore was in her bed at home where she should have been safest. She was 84 years old and lived alone. You forced your way into her home, went into her bedroom, punched her once and then killed her by strangling and suffocating her on her bed. She could not save herself from your attack given your respective ages (her in her 80s and you in your early 30s) and builds (she a slightly built woman of 5 foot in height, you a powerfully built weightlifter). You did not know her and had no apparent motive for this vicious attack on a defenceless elderly lady. That is count 2.
- This attack was the culmination of a series of violent incidents. The first was on 26 May 2020 when you attacked an elderly man in a shop in Hinckley with a pickaxe handle. Your attack resulted in him sustaining a fractured skull and a bleed on the brain. There was persistence in your violence on this occasion. After attacking the elderly man in the way I have described, you chased the shopkeeper still brandishing the weapon and frightened him such that he had to lock himself in a stock room to get away from you. Following this attack you were charged, perhaps surprisingly, only with affray and possession of an offensive weapon.
- You had pleaded guilty to those offences and were on court bail awaiting sentence when, on 18 November 2020, you became embroiled in an argument with your supervisor at work and attacked him by repeatedly hitting and kicking him. It arose from nothing and appeared to your victim as if a switch had flicked in your head as you launched your attack. The assault on him was sustained and carried out initially while he was standing next to you and then, when he fell over, while he was prone on the ground. This offence is count 3.
- On 19 February 2021 you were sentenced to a prison term of 12 months which was suspended for 24 months in respect of the offences you had committed in May 2020.
- Only six days after receiving that sentence, on 25 February, you became involved in further street violence. Your violence on that occasion was sudden and sustained. That resulted in your being charged with two offences of assault and one of using threatening words and behaviour. On 18 May you received a further suspended sentence of 4m suspended for 18 months for those offences.
- Thus it was that when you killed Mildred Whitmore you were subject to two suspended sentences in respect of two separate incidents and were under investigation for the assault which is count 3 on the indictment.
- You were originally charged with the murder of Ms Whitmore. You indicated that you would plead guilty to manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility at the Plea and Trial Preparation Hearing. That was, in my...
