HELEN RODGER OR HOUGHTON v. HER MAJESTY'S ADVOCATE

The appellant is Mrs Helen Rodger or Houghton who appeals against a sentence of six years' imprisonment imposed on her in the High Court at Stonehaven on 18 January 1999. On that day she pled guilty to a charge of the culpable homicide of her husband, committed on 27 September in the house in which she and her husband lived in Aberdeen.

The sentencing Judge tells us that the death resulted from two blows struck by the appellant with a knife. The first transfixed the heart, left lung and left side of the diaphragm of the deceased, penetrating to a depth of about 7 inches and causing massive internal bleeding. The second blow transfixed the liver penetrating about 5 inches. The first wound would alone have killed the deceased.

The sentencing Judge records that the appellant showed no signs of injury at the time of the police interview, but the doctor who examined her conceded that bruising might not have developed at that stage.

In his report, the sentencing Judge sets out his reasoning in determining the sentence which he imposed as follows:

In presenting the appeal on behalf of the appellant, Mr Shead referred us to the whole circumstances, as we have already narrated them, as they appear from the sentencing Judge's report with the additional matters to which we have also referred. It was not suggested that the trial Judge had been in error or had misdirected himself in relation to the matters which should properly be taken into account. The submission was simply that it could properly be said that adequate weight had not been given to the mitigating factors.