The Court of Criminal Appeal replaced five life sentences imposed on Edward Piotrowski with concurrent fixed terms of 10 and 18 years, allowing his appeal against sentence on those counts. The new terms run from 25 November 2007, the date of his arrest and the start of his custody, the court said.
The appeal concerned sentences for false imprisonment, aggravated sexual assault and three rape offences. The court imposed 10 years for false imprisonment and aggravated sexual assault, and 18 years for each of the three rape counts. All five terms run concurrently.
Piotrowski’s appeal against his convictions on seven counts had already been dismissed in an earlier judgment. This ruling addressed the sentence appeal left over from that case. It did not disturb the sentences on the other three counts: 10 years for aggravated burglary, five years for assault causing harm, and 10 years for false imprisonment. The assault sentence followed a guilty plea; the other offences had been contested at trial.
The court described the offences as at the very upper end of their range, with limited mitigation. It referred to the prolonged incident at a dwelling outside a midlands town in which Piotrowski assaulted and restrained two people, threatened them, and sexually assaulted and raped one of them. The victims are anonymised in the judgment as Ms. Z and Mr. Y.
In changing the five life terms, the court said a fixed sentence might be easier to adapt if Piotrowski sought to serve the remaining part of his sentence in Poland. It stressed that it was not deciding whether such a transfer would be appropriate or whether he would seek one. The court said the prospect of transfer was an option he was entitled to pursue, and that imposing life sentences could create difficulties across different sentencing systems.
The court also considered that a fixed term should not be significantly less onerous in practice than the life sentences it replaced. It took account of the possibility of release and remission, as well as material about Piotrowski’s prison record, but said the exceptional seriousness of the offences meant those factors had limited effect on the overall sentence.
The appeal was allowed only in relation to counts 4 to 8. The court’s order replaced those life sentences with the concurrent terms set out above, backdated to 25 November 2007.