Turner, Ian

Ian Turner was convicted in July 1999 of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and received a sentence of life imprisonment. The judge specified 21 months as the term to be served.

The CCRC received an application for review of Mr Kelly’s sentence in March 2001.

Mr Turner 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 Turner 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 Turner’s previous appeal it had interpreted as falling within the “usual” parameters resulting in a mandatory life sentence.

At Mr Turner’s first-time appeal Mr Justice Rougier had stated that the 30-year gap between Mr Turner’s serious offences could not amount to an “exceptional circumstance.”

The CCRC considered that, in the light of the Offen judgment, this factor, and the fact that Mr Turner had not committed any further offences in the meantime, would now be considered relevant to the court’s assessment of “exceptional circumstances.”

The CCRC also observed the “distaste” expressed by the Court of Appeal when it felt constrained to uphold the life sentence imposed by the sentencing judge at Mr Turner’s first-time appeal.

The CCRC concluded that there was a real possibility that the Court of Appeal, applying the Offen judgment, would find that the circumstances in Mr Turner’s case did not justify the imposition of a life sentence.

The CRCC referred the sentence in April 2001.

The Court of Appeal quashed the life sentence in December 2001 and substituted it for a determinate one of three years and six months’ imprisonment.