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England and Wales Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) Decisions |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) Decisions >> Ahmad, R. v [2024] EWCA Crim 370 (31 January 2024) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2024/370.html Cite as: [2024] EWCA Crim 370 |
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CRIMINAL DIVISION
Strand London WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
MR JUSTICE CHOUDHURY
THE RECORDER OF REDBRIDGE
HER HONOUR JUDGE ROSA DEAN
(Sitting as a Judge of the CACD)
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REX | ||
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KAMILA AHMAD |
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Lower Ground Floor, 46 Chancery Lane, London, WC2A 1JE
Tel No: 020 7404 1400; Email: [email protected] (Official Shorthand Writers to the Court)
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Crown Copyright ©
Factual background
Grounds of appeal
"You fell to be sentenced for wounding with intent of a previous partner and for murder of another following your trial. The jury rejected that you were acting on occasion in self-defence.
In relation to the murder sentence the Judge took the appropriate starting point of 15 years. Although he accepted that you did not have an intent to kill, there were significant aggravating factors to the offence. You inflicted four knife wounds to the rear of the deceased's body in his own home to which you had gained access. The Judge found, as he was entitled on the evidence and well-placed having presided over your trial so to do, that you acted out of anger. This was against the background of earlier threats to stab him. There was evidence that the deceased would have survived if you had called assistance. You did not do so. There was evidence that he survived for up to 30 minutes. He did not have a phone to summon help. The Judge was entitled to find that he suffered in that time. You set about cleaning the flat in an attempt to hide what you had done. You disposed of evidence. You put another up to giving a false account for the deceased's injuries and left the scene. You have significant previous convictions. The offence was committed on licence. The Judge was entitled to find that you are a dangerous young woman and that these aggravating factors warranted an increase in the starting point of five years. In so doing he took into account the limited mitigation that you had. The Judge was well-placed to determine on the evidence whether you were the victim of domestic violence at the hands of the deceased and to conclude that you were not. He was entitled to find that you were the perpetrator of domestic violence at the hands of the deceased and to treat that as an aggravating factor.
The Judge properly categorised the offence of unlawful wounding within the guideline. You were 16, nearly 17 years of age at the time of that offence. As was said in R v Ghafoor [2001] EWCA Crim 857 the starting point is the sentence a defendant would have been likely to have received if sentenced on at the date of the commission of the offence. Your youth would have been taken into account at that time. Eight years had passed between the commission of this offence and your sentence. As was said in Ghafoor a Judge is entitled to consider that a long interval between the commission of the offence and conviction as well as the fact that a defendant has been revealed to be a dangerous criminal by the time of sentence impacts on the appropriate reduction, if any for youth. In any event the sentence was ordered to run concurrently with the life sentence for murder which was only increased by three years for totality.
The Judge plainly considered totality in the overall sentence imposed and expressly only increased the minimum term for the murder by three years for that reason.
Your sentence is not arguably manifestly excessive for two extremely serious offences in which you stabbed partners or ex-partners multiple times. Leave to appeal sentence is accordingly refused."