Jeremy Lynn has just obtained a rather good result for a Defendant charged with two attempted murders and possessing a bladed article – the machete that he used during the attack.
The incident itself was captured on CCTV and the Defendant could be seen repeatedly striking both victims with the machete which an independent witness had seen him take from his car. The case was aggravated by the fact that one of the victims was holding his child in his arms; the other was holding his little boy by the hand.
The CCTV showed that the Defendant only desisted when his girlfriend dragged him away.
Both victims sustained grave injuries, each left with a fractured skull, and other serious wounds.
The Defendant gave a No Comment interview, but in his instructions were that he had previously been attacked by the victims who had threatened to stab and shoot him. Having served a Defence Statement setting out this background, we were rewarded with disclosure of material that supported the Defendant’s assertions, even to the extent that on one earlier occasion when his car had been rammed by a vehicle driven by one of the victims, the latter had been seen running from the scene brandishing a machete which was later recovered with his DNA on it.
At an early stage in the proceedings the Defendant offered pleas to s.18 Wounding with Intent. These pleas were rejected by the Crown. However when the matter came to trial, the Crown said that they would accept the offered pleas.
The Defendant was sentenced to a total of 8 years’ imprisonment, when he might easily of received 25 or 30 years following conviction for Attempted Murder. The Judge (HHJ Spencer KC) said that he would (unusually) afford the Defendant full credit. This was on the basis that the pleas to s.18 were not available to the Defendant until the day of trial and there was clear evidence that they had been offered prior to his PTPH.
The Judge also accepted the mitigation that there had been a great deal of provocation.
The Defendant’s case was largely handled by Radhika Saujani of ZMS Solicitors, Leicester.
The case was widely reported online:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-64666453
