Jason Walker [2019] EWCA Crim 1190

The appellant pleaded guilty to two offences of possession of a bladed article and was committed to the crown court for sentence where he received a total of 13 months’ imprisonment.

The appellant was refused entry to a club and made reference to a film of the slasher genre, the handle of a knife could be seen inside his jacket pocket, a knife with a four inch blade was removed from him. He was arrested and searched, and a second knife was found in the lining of his jacket.

The real point in the appeal was whether a starting point of 20 months was justified after trial for carrying both knives.

The Court’s judgment was that the starting point for the primary knife was 18 months. The second knife had fallen into the lining and was difficult to extract so did not give rise to any risk of serious disorder so would merit a starting point of 6 months. The aggregate of the starting points would fully justify a sentence of 2 years and a reduction of 4 months would properly reflect the issues of totality. Although the Court might have structured the sentence differently the overall sentence of 13 months could not be described as manifestly excessive.