2025-06-27
Woman was serving suspended sentence when she punched and slashed two men
Stage: Appeal
Outcome: John Edwards dismissed the appeal, saying Melissa Whelan attacked her victim with a potentially lethal weapon. (Photo: Collins) By Fiona Magennis The daughter of a convicted murderer has failed to have her four-year sentence reduced on appeal after she punched one man and slashed another with a knife in an "unprovoked" attack whilst under a partially suspended sentence for a brutal assault that left the victim in an induced coma. The judge said Whelan had previously been given a "significant chance" but had failed to adhere to the conditions on which that sentence had been part suspended. "The whole point of a suspended sentence is to hold a "Sword of Damocles" over an offender," he said. "The sentencing judge fully took into account the difficult circumstances of the appellant's case and reflected that in the decision not to have her serve the full four and a half years but rather to require her to serve just two years of that." Mr Justice Edwards said the judge had sought to balance