Prosecutors will not appeal against killer’s prison term

Michael Charles Brown (52) was jailed for life with a minimum of six years on Monday after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of his neighbour, 73-year-old John Stephen McCarthy.

The Crown had asked for Brown, who suffers from severe brain damage following an assault in prison 14 years ago, to receive a life sentence and be locked up for at least ten years before he could apply for parole.

But the court, which was presided over by the Bailiff, Sir William Bailhache, said that due to the defendant’s low level of culpability as a result of his injuries, a minimum term of ten years was too high. However, the court agreed a life sentence was necessary to protect the public.

Today, the Attorney General, Robert MacRae, said that the Crown ‘will not be appealing’ against the minimum term.

Brown’s defence counsel, led by Advocate Julian Gollop, had asked for a ‘determinate’ sentence of, at most, eight years. If that had been ordered, Brown could have been released in less than six years – assuming he only served two-thirds of his sentence – before being released without any conditions.

Under a life term, Brown can be made subject to conditions for the rest of his life once he is given parole. The conditions will be decided by a panel consisting of the Bailiff and two Jurats.

If the panel orders so, the defendant can also be recalled to prison at any time.

In 2012, Damien Rzeszowski, who killed his family and two others, was given a determinate sentence of 30 years behind bars for manslaughter. He pleaded guilty to the charge on the grounds of diminished responsibility as he suffered from severe depression and psychotic symptoms.

The prosecution, led by then Solicitor General Howard Sharp, had called for Rzeszowski to serve a life sentence with a minimum of 20 years.

However, because of a quirk in Island law, the court at the time only had the power to sentence a defendant to life and set a minimum tariff for mandatory life sentences – such as those handed down for murder.

In cases where a life sentence is not mandatory, such as manslaughter, the court had no power to impose a minimum tariff. Therefore, if Rzeszowski had been jailed for life he would have spent the rest of his days in prison with no chance of parole.

This sentence would have been much harsher than those being served by the majority of murderers in the UK – even though Rzeszowski had been convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

The law in Jersey has now been changed and life sentences are covered by the Criminal Justice (Life Sentences) (Jersey) Law 2014.

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