Man in Winchester grandad plot has sentence overturned (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Man in Winchester grandad plot has sentence overturned

5:26pm Wednesday 18th January 2012 in Alresford

A HAMPSHIRE man, who was embroiled in an "unspeakable" plot with his mother to kill her elderly father for his money near Winchester, has had his indefinite jail term overturned.

London's Criminal Appeal Court heard the woman and her son used the internet to research methods of killing, before attacking the 89-year-old grandfather who had adopted her when she was a child.

Lawyers told the court the woman, from Eastleigh, was obsessed with the idea of owning a small-holding in Yorkshire with horses, and drew her son his teenage girlfriend, and two daughters into the plot to kill.

The 20-year-old son, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was handed detention for public protection - almost identical to a life sentence - at Winchester Crown Court last August, after being convicted of conspiracy to murder.

But the indefinite jail term was yesterday (TUES) quashed by judges, who said the public could be protected by him serving a 20-year extended sentence instead.

His new sentence comprises a 15-year jail term with a five-year extension on his licence once he is released.

The court heard the victim was lured out of his home in a village near Winchester in November 2010, before being knocked to the ground - where he was punched and kicked repeatedly and hit with bricks.

Outlining the case, Lady Justice Hallett said: “The facts of this case are truly appalling - they belong in the world of fiction, but sadly they are real.”

All five denied any wrongdoing, but were found guilty by the jury. The mother was convicted of conspiracy to murder and was jailed for 17 years.

Lawyers for the son argued he should not have been deemed dangerous by the trial judge, as he had only one relevant previous conviction for assaulting someone with an air rifle.

His barrister, Nigel Lickley QC, said the case involved a set of ingredients that were highly unlikely to ever occur again.

Lady Justice Hallett, sitting with Mr Justice Irwin and Judge Warwick McKinnon QC, said the trial judge was right to find the son was a "dangerous" offender.

But, allowing the appeal, she said the court was satisfied the public could be protected by an extended, rather than an indefinite, sentence.

She added: “This was a very young man who was acting at the behest of his mother. We are satisfied that an extended sentence should serve to protect the public from the risk that this young man presents.”