In court

Aged 18, without prior convictions and living with her new partner (T.), B. had just received a message that another young woman (S.) was pregnant by him and confronted him. When he denied any knowledge of S. she put her arm round his throat from behind as he sat on a sofa, holding a substantial kitchen knife to his chest for a sustained period while telling him that she wanted to kill him and then herself. When she had let go of him T. called the police; she told the officers what she had done. Following her guilty plea to making threat to kill, a PSR (pre-sentence report) described her as ‘child-like’, vulnerable and presenting as younger than her age, proposing a community order with a rehabilitative activity requirement to address her thinking skills and developmental maturation needs. A psychiatric report similarly noted her ‘developmental delay’, impulsivity and learning difficulties, and her history of anxiety and depression, in tandem with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) and ADHD. Agreeing that this was ‘a very sad case’, the judge observed that B. was ‘incapable of controlling her anger’. Application of the relevant Guideline (Intimidatory Offences, 2018) indicated higher culpability (Level A) (given the presence of a visible weapon and an offence in the victim’s home) and harm at Level 2 (distress and psychological harm short of very serious and significant – T. had submitted a victim statement attesting to the flashbacks he was experiencing), thus indicating a starting point of 24 months’ custody with a range between 12 and 48 months. Adopting that starting point and giving full credit for plea, the judge imposed 16 months’ YOI detention, remarking that if the defendant had been a man and his victim a woman, there would be an outcry were he not to impose a sentence of immediate custody. The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice