Sandra Elizabeth Fraser or Anderson or Bruce v. Her Majesty’s Advocate [2016] HCJAC 25

Note of appeal against sentence:- On 19 June 2015, at Glasgow High Court, the appellant was convicted after trial of a charge of murder, the deceased being her partner of 20 years. Following the obtaining of a Criminal Justice Social Work Report the trial judge imposed a sentence of life imprisonment with a punishment part of 15 years. The appellant appealed against the punishment part selected on the grounds that it was excessive. The circumstances of the offence were that the appellant and the deceased had been involved in a relationship together for a considerable period of time and married in 2010. They were both heavy drinkers and there was a history of physical violence between them. On the day of the incident they had both spent the day in bed drinking. During the night the deceased got up to go to the toilet and the appellant’s next recollection was finding the deceased lying on the bedroom floor dead with significant injuries to his face, scalp, neck, arms and trunk, including 20 fractures to the ribs and neck which were consistent with blunt force trauma caused by kicking and stamping. The injuries were described as similar to those seen in a road traffic accident or a fall from a considerable height and death would have resulted within one hour of the injuries being inflicted. The following morning the appellant called the emergency services who described her as being in a state of distress and intoxication when they arrived. The appellant accepted responsibility for the death of her husband and the issue at trial was whether the death had been as a result of a murder or culpable homicide. It was submitted on the appellant’s behalf that in light of Boyle v HMA 2010 JC 66 the punishment part selected was too high and that the sentencing judge had not taken the appellant’s personal circumstances sufficiently into account given the case involved the death of her life partner. In addition, in prison she had sought to assist others in taking part in a peer mentoring scheme. Here the court refused the appeal. Whilst the court recognised that a weapon had not been used, that the appellant was 61 years of age and did not have any previous convictions, that she had a good work record and that the deceased was her life partner the court also considered there to be present a number of aggravating factors. These included the nature and severity of the attack which included repeated kicking, stamping and jumping on the deceased’s head and body as he was lying on his back and unable to defend himself. The court also considered the failure by the appellant to call for assistance until many hours after the incident as an aggravating feature. The court considered that a punishment part of 15 years could not be described as excessive and was within the appropriate range of punishment parts for an offence of this nature.