Williamina Robertson Stewart and Paul Noble v. Her Majesty's Advocate [2012] HCJAC 103

Criminal Note of Appeal Against Sentence:- On 1 March 2012, at the High Court in Aberdeen a number of weeks in to a murder trial the two appellants pled guilty to a charge of culpable homicide. The first appellant's plea was to repeatedly punching the deceased on the head and body and to repeatedly kicking his head and body. She was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. The second appellant's plea also involved repeatedly punching the deceased on the head and body, but it included not only repeated kicking but stamping on the head and body. He was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment. The first appellant's partner pled guilty to punching the deceased on the head and her brother pled guilty to striking him on the body with a bicycle and kicking him on the leg. They were both admonished. The appellants appealed against their sentences on the ground that the period selected was excessive. The background to the case was that there was a false accusation that the deceased was a paedophile and this played a part in the decision to find and attack the deceased. The court here considered all of the background in the case including the fact that the deceased was responsible for setting a trampoline alight, using an accelerant, and that he had tried to gain access to the block of flats, where the first appellant's parents and her children lived in deciding whether the sentence imposed in relation to the first appellant was excessive. In relation to the second appellant the court considered the significantly greater level of violence exhibited by him in repeatedly stamping on the deceased against his age in deciding whether the sentence imposed on him was excessive.