Kelly, Edward

Edward Kelly was convicted in May 1998 of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Mr Kelly received a sentence of life imprisonment with a specified tariff of four years, reduced on appeal to two and a half years.

The CCRC received an application for review of Mr Kelly’s sentence in October 2000.

Mr Kelly had been sentenced under the “two strikes and you’re out” provisions of the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997.

During review, the CCRC considered whether the court would find that Mr Kelly was, in principle, entitled to benefit from a change in approach towards mandatory life sentences as a result of the judgment in the case of R v Offen (2001).

The CCRC found that, taking account of the Offen judgment, the Court of Appeal might be prepared to consider factors which in Mr Kelly’s previous appeal it had interpreted as falling within the “usual” parameters resulting in a mandatory life sentence.

At Mr Kelly’s first-time appeal Lord Bingham had stated that Mr Kelly’s youth when he committed his first offence, the 18-year gap between his serious offences, and the differences between the serious offences (armed robbery on the first occasion and grievous bodily harm on the second) were “usual” and not “exceptional”.

Therefore, these factors did not provide a justification for not imposing a life sentence.

The CCRC considered that in the light of the Offen judgment, these factors would now be considered relevant to the court’s assessment of “exceptional circumstances” in deciding whether or not to impose a mandatory life sentence.

The CCRC concluded that there was a real possibility the court would find that the circumstances in Mr Kelly’s case did not justify the imposition of a life sentence.

The CCRC referred the sentence in February 2001.

The Court of Appeal reduced the sentence in July 2001 to a determinate one of five years.