Description
Criminal note of appeal against sentence:- The appellant appealed against the imposition of a supervised release order in terms of section 209 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 in relation to a charge of assault to injury and permanent disfigurement for which the appellant was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment. In terms of section 209 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, a court may make a supervised release order "if it considers that it is necessary to do so to protect the public from serious harm from the offender on his release". The sentence was considered necessary because the sheriff said that the appellant had committed two serious assaults over six years. The criminal justice social work report concluded that the appellant "presents with low risk needs, which indicates a low likelihood of reoffending" and the author considered the appellant was suitable for a community rather than custodial sentence. Here the court considered that the statutory test for the imposition of a supervised release order was not met as the CJSWR indicated that the risk assessment for the appellant was low and the appellant only had one previous analogous conviction 6 years prior to the offence here. The court considered, however, that the offence did merit a sentence of imprisonment but considered that the sheriff had failed to have regard to the conclusions of the CJSWR including his years of productive and law abiding behaviour, his attempts to deal with his problems proactively, in particular, addressing his problems with alcohol, his genuine remorse and the effect a custodial sentence would have on the appellant. Here the court considered that the sentence of 20 months was excessive and concluded that a custodial sentence of 12 months, discounted from 18 months on account of the plea of guilty, was appropriate.
0141 553 4890
