Jack Mapstone [2019] EWCA Crim 410

The applicant pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent and was sentenced to an extended sentence of 12 years and 6 months comprising a custodial term of 7 years and 6 months.

The challenge was made to the extended sentence and not to the custodial sentence. The applicant assaulted his girlfriend, during the course of the assault he tried to strangle her, punched, kicked and kneed her, and hit her with a phone used as a weapon. The complainant was left with fractures to both eye sockets, fractured nose, lacerations and extensive bruising.

The applicant was 21, had no previous convictions and had shown real remorse. The pre-sentence report assessed him as a high risk of serious harm, in particular to future partners. The judge was entitled to accept the recommendations of the probation officer, it was well within the proper range of reasonable evaluation to do so.

The defence suggested that even if the finding of dangerousness was justified the judge should have refrained from imposing an extended sentence. That was a matter for the discretion of the judge, and in his acceptance of what the probation officer had said he had every justification to impose an extended sentence. The renewed application was refused.