Jordan Neary [2019] EWCA Crim 1045

The appellant was sentenced to 4 years and 5 months’ imprisonment for offences of domestic violence against his partner. He pleaded guilty on the day of trial to an offence of doing an act which harmed a witness contrary to section 51(2) of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. That offence was committed the day after a jury had convicted him of an earlier s47 assault. For the assault he was sentenced to 8 months’ imprisonment and for witness harming to a consecutive term of 3 years and 9 months.

The grounds for appeal were that there was insufficient credit for a guilty plea and the question of totality.

Held: the appellant was entitled to have the arithmetical error in relation to the reduction for plea corrected as a matter of principle and a further reduction for totality was appropriate. The sentence for witness harming was quashed and substituted a sentence of 40 months.