AS [2019] EWCA Crim 1458

The appellant appealed against sentences totalling 33 months’ detention for kidnap, robbery and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. At the time of the offending he was 13 years old and the two victims were 11. Expert evidence put forward a diagnosis of ADHD and ASD and that the appellant was easily led.

Held: although the sentence of detention was necessary the Recorder did not explicitly refer to the appellant’s cognitive deficit, that his conditions made him particularly easy to lead and limited his ability to recognise the consequences of his actions. He also failed to sufficiently take into account the difference between the appellant and a co-accused was not just chronological age but that the appellant functioned as a much younger child. The sentence was quashed, and one of 24 months’ detention substituted.