Attorney Generals Reference Nos 4, 5, 6, 7 And 8 of 2014
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
- LORD JUSTICE DAVIS
- MR JUSTICE JEREMY BAKER
Areas of Law
- Criminal Law and Procedure
- Evidence Law
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Attorney-General referred the sentences of five defendants convicted of conspiracy to possess firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life for being unduly lenient. The defendants were linked to the Roadside Gangsters. The court considered prior convictions, gang involvement, and the severity of the offenses. Sentences for Nathan and Tafari Deacon, Kumar, Wilson, and Dawson were increased to match the gravity of their crimes and public protection imperatives, highlighting the severe stance on firearms offenses, particularly within a gangland context.
J U D G M E N T
LORD JUSTICE DAVIS: These are applications by the Attorney-General for leave to refer sentences which he regards as unduly lenient. We grant leave.
The sentences in question were imposed after the defendants had variously been convicted of offences of conspiracy to possess a firearm and, in some cases ammunition also, with intent to endanger life or to enable another to endanger life. There is a gangland context.
The defendants were Nathan Deacon, aged 24 at the time of the offending; his brother Tafari Deacon, aged 26 at the time of the offending; Durrell Kumar, aged 22 at the time of the offending; Josiah Wilson, aged 19 at the time of the offending; and Timothy Dawson, aged 18 at the time of the offending.
On 8th November 2013 Nathan Deacon and Tafari Deacon and Kumar were convicted after a lengthy trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court before Her Honour Judge Korner QC and a jury of counts of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life or to enable another to endanger life and of conspiracy to possess ammunition with the like intent. A separate trial had for various reasons been ordered for the defendants, Josiah Wilson and Timothy Dawson. They were convicted after a trial on 20th November 2013, at the same Crown Court, of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life or to enable another to endanger life. Those two however were acquitted of a count of conspiracy to possess ammunition with intent to endanger life and another related count in the alternative relating to possession of ammunition.
On 21st December 2013 the trial judge sentenced the various defendants in the following ways. Nathan Deacon was sentenced to a term of 10 years' imprisonment on count 1 and to 2 years' imprisonment on count 3, the ammunition count, to run concurrently. The total sentence in his case was thus one of 10 years' imprisonment. Tafari Deacon received precisely the same sentence. Kumar received 8 years on count 1 and 2 years concurrent on count 3, thereby receiving a total sentence of 8 years' imprisonment. The defendant Wilson received 4 years' imprisonment on the count on which he was convicted and the like sentence was imposed in the case of the defendant Dawson. We grant leave in each case.
The background facts can be summarised as follows. Each of these defendants was a member of a gang based in South London called the "Roadside Gangsters" or RSG. The Deacon brothers were senior members of that gang, or "olders", and