ROBERT WALLACE v. HER MAJESTY'S ADVOCATE

The appellant was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment on a charge of assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement. The sentence was made to run concurrently with twenty one months of an unexpired portion of an earlier sentence. That latter part, however, appears to be incompetent because the original sentence was imposed prior to 1 October 1993. Accordingly, the order made under section 16 of the 1993 Act will be quashed.

The appellant has a record of previous convictions which is quite deplorable. He has convictions for thirteen offences of assault, one assault and robbery for which he was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment in 1978 and one assault to severe injury and danger of life in 1991 for which he was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment which was reduced to seven years on appeal. It was that sentence which still had twenty one months to run when the present offence was committed.

It is quite clear that even for an assault of this nature with the use of a weapon a sentence of eight years' imprisonment is a substantial sentence. However, it has to be noted that the appellant does have a quite deplorable record and that this offence was committed at a time when he was on licence from a sentence of seven years' imprisonment imposed for similar offences.

In these circumstances, while we accept that the sentence may be on the high side, we are quite unable to say that it can be properly regarded as excessive and accordingly this appeal must be refused.