Sophia Dower in Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) Sentence Appeal

On 26th November 2024, Sophia Dower appeared before the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) in an appeal against sentence, for which leave had been granted by the Single Judge.

Sophia’s client was a member of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle club who were involved in a vicious, highly planned revenge attack against a rival motorcycle club called the Vikings. The trigger for the violence was the theft of a trainee Hell’s Angel member’s jacket earlier in the day.  The Hell’s Angels exacted their revenge by breaking into the Vikings’ clubhouse to ransack it, and then ambushed a group of Viking members who were parked in a layby on the A24 in West Sussex. The client, armed with a knife, pursued the Victim across the road before grabbing him into a hold, stabbing him three times to the upper left chest, torso and arm and taking him to ground. The Victim was further beaten, kicked, and stamped on by two more Hell’s Angels before they all fled the scene. The Victim suffered two lacerations to the anterior chest wall, one deep laceration to the right arm, a fractured rib, and punctured lung. He refused to support the prosecution. The attack was captured on dash-cam and witnessed by members of the public.

Initially charged with Attempted Murder, the Prosecution ultimately accepted a plea to Wounding with Intent to cause Grievous Bodily Harm, as well as Violent Disorder, Possession of a Bladed Article and Burglary. He was in breach of a Suspended Sentence Order imposed just a week before the incident for another violent offence and had other previous convictions for violence.

During the sentencing exercise, the trial Judge concluded the Wounding offence fell into Category 1A on the Sentencing Guidelines, as opposed to 2A as submitted by the defence. The categorisation of harm on the Sentencing Guidelines was successfully challenged on appeal where, in response to Sophia’s “thoughtfully articulated submissions”, the full Court were persuaded that the injuries caused were not in fact life-threatening nor particularly grave in the context of section 18 offences. The Court of Appeal agreed the appropriate category was Category 2A. On that basis, the overall sentence was quashed as manifestly excessive, and the starting point was reduced by 3 years. The appeals against sentence by her client’s co-defendants had earlier been dismissed.

Sophia Dower was instructed by Hojol Uddin of JMW Solicitors.

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