Sentencing

Young offender - term of detention and training order - requirement to take into account time spent on remand not obliging court to reduce sentenceR v Inner London Crown Court,ex parte I: DC (Laws LJ and Silber J): 4 May 2000

The offender, who spent time in custody on remand, was convicted of assault.

The youth court imposed a four-month detention and training order.

The Crown Court dismissed her appeal against sentence.

She sought judicial review, contending that a lower sentence would have been passed if time on remand had been taken into account.Simon Wilshire (instructed by Needham Poulier & Partners) for the offender.

Warwick Tatford (instructed by Crown Prosecution Service, Youth & City Branch) for the prosecutor.Held, refusing the application, that, when determining the term of a detention and training order to be imposed pursuant to s.73 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, the duty of the court under s.74(5) of that Act to take account of any period spent on remand in custody did not necessarily require that period to be reflected in some specific way in the sentence passed and did not provide for a one-to-one discount; that there might be cases where that time was considerable and ought to lead the court to pass a shorter sentence than it would otherwise have done, but not every case would fall into that category; and that it was open to the sentencing court, in view of the very short time of less than 24 hours spent in custody, to find that it could make no difference to the sentence imposed, which was within the range of sentences open to a rational court.