The Court of Criminal Appeal replaced a life sentence imposed on Leigh Crowe for manslaughter with a 20-year term, ruling that the sentencing judge had rejected the diminished-responsibility basis on which the plea had been accepted. The court left concurrent sentences of 15 years for attempted murder and five years for assault unchanged.
Crowe had pleaded not guilty to murdering Owen Cahill but guilty to manslaughter on the ground of diminished responsibility. The Director of Public Prosecutions accepted that plea. Crowe also pleaded guilty to attempting to murder Mark Doolan and assaulting Sharon Rossiter, causing harm. The Central Criminal Court imposed the life sentence for manslaughter and the other concurrent terms in 2007. Crowe appealed the severity of the sentences for manslaughter and attempted murder.
The appeal court said the killing was premeditated and involved lethal weapons in a dwelling house, placing the case among the most serious examples of manslaughter. It also identified the sentencing judge’s treatment of the accepted plea as a central problem: the judge had rejected the claim that Crowe’s responsibility was substantially diminished because of his history of alcohol and drug use, and that rejection formed the basis of the life sentence.
The court said that accepting a plea to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility recognised that Crowe should not be treated in precisely the same way as someone fully responsible for his actions. It held that a substantial but finite sentence was appropriate, taking account of the seriousness of the offence and mitigation including the early plea and psychiatric history. The court also referred to Crowe’s demonstrated capacity for rehabilitation.
The appeal court set the manslaughter sentence at 20 years’ imprisonment and declined to interfere with the 15-year attempted murder and five-year assault sentences. All sentences were to run concurrently, as ordered at trial, and to date from 3 April 2006. The court said remission was a matter for the executive, not the courts.