Sentences of three men convicted of joint enterprise murder referred to the Court of Appeal due to legal error
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has referred the sentences of three men to the Court of Appeal because time they had spent in custody whilst on remand had not been deducted.
Lerone Boye, Dale Williams and Roger Damali were convicted on 22 November 2012 at the Central Criminal Court of murder and violent disorder.
A 17-year-old male was murdered in the early hours of 15 August 2011 at a private party in a club in Ilford. He died as a result of a single stab wound to the chest. It was the prosecution’s case at trial that the defendants had taken part in a joint enterprise to attack the victim or the victim’s friends.
All three defendants received a sentence of life imprisonment with minimum terms of 28 years (Mr Boye), 26 years (Mr Williams) and 23 years (Mr Damali).
However, each defendant spent time in custody whilst on remand which was not deducted from their sentence. This issue was not raised at the time of sentencing.
Indeterminate sentences are an exception to section 240ZA of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and therefore time spent in custody whilst on remand cannot be deducted administratively by the prison if it is not addressed at the time of sentence.
On 18 July 2024, following a referral from the CCRC, the Court of Appeal reduced the sentence of Hugo Nwankwo-Ekeh, another co-defendant in the case, to reflect the number of days served on remand.
As a result of this judgment, the CCRC identified that similar circumstances applied to Mr Nwankwo-Ekeh’s co-defendants. The CCRC wrote to the defendants in December 2024 and applications were subsequently received from all three.
The CCRC has taken into account the passage of time between the sentence hearing and this issue being raised but considers that there is a real possibility that the Court of Appeal will find that in the circumstances of this case, any delay cannot be attributed to the defendants.
Consequently, there is a real possibility the Court of Appeal will correct the legal error and deduct the time spent on remand by each defendant from their minimum term. This is: 434 days (Mr Boye), 483 days (Mr Williams) and 295 days (Mr Damali).
In addition, there is a real possibility the Court of Appeal will deduct a further four days from Mr Williams’ sentence to reflect time spent on police bail under a non-qualifying curfew, as it did for Mr Nwankwo-Ekeh.
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Notes to Editors:
- The CCRC is an independent body set up under the Criminal Appeal Act 1995. It is responsible for independently reviewing suspected and alleged miscarriages of criminal justice in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is based in Birmingham and is funded by the Ministry of Justice.
- There are currently nine Commissioners who bring to the CCRC considerable experience from a wide variety of backgrounds. Commissioners are appointed by the monarch on the recommendation of the Prime Minister in accordance with the Office for the Commissioner for Public Appointments’ Code of Practice.
- The CCRC usually receives around 1,500 applications for reviews (convictions and/or sentences) each year. Since starting work in 1997, the CCRC has referred around 3% of applications to the appeal courts.
- The CCRC considers whether, as a result of new information or a new argument on a point of law, there is a real possibility that the sentence would not be upheld were a reference to be made. New information or argument on a point of law is argument or information which has not been raised during the original sentence hearing or on appeal. Applicants should usually have appealed first. A sentence can be referred in the absence of an earlier appeal only if there are “exceptional circumstances”.
- If a case is referred, it is then for the appeal court to decide whether the sentence should be changed.
- More details about the role and work of the Criminal Cases Review Commission can be found at www.ccrc.gov.uk. The CCRC can be found on X, Facebook, Instagram (@the_ccrc) and Linkedin.