Court of Appeal reduces aggravated burglary sentence

A man who faced eight and a half years in jail for aggravated burglary has had his sentence reduced by a year after the Court of Appeal upheld his appeal.

Karl Danino, 40, was jailed for eight and a half years last January for aggravated burglary and threats to kill and recently appealed the length of his sentence.

The appeal was heard by judges Sir Patrick Elias, Sir Nicholas Underhill, and Sir Nigel Davis.

Danino was sentenced for kicking open the front door of a residence, gaining access and brandishing a large metal pole.

The court heard how Danino swung the pole at a woman inside the flat and, when she disarmed him, he pulled a metal pick from his pocket and repeatedly tried to stab her torso.

In addition to bruising and abrasions, she sustained an 8mm incisional injury to her lower abdomen.

In a separate incident while awaiting trial, Danino threatened to kill a GP who had refused to provide a prescription for the medicines he was demanding.

The fundamental ground of appeal put forward by defence lawyer Neil Costa was that the sentence was “manifestly excessive.”

“It is alleged that there were numerous errors in approach and that had the exercise been properly undertaken, the appropriate sentence would have been in the region of six years before credit for the guilty plea,” Sir Patrick Elias said.

Mr Costa had submitted that there were various errors in the categorisation, a failure to give credit for all mitigation, failure to give sufficient discount for the guilty plea and a failure to have proper regard to the principle of totality.

The appeal judges found that the sentencing judge was justified in choosing a starting point of eight years, but that there was force in some of the submissions from Mr Costa.

“In particular, I believe that there has been a degree of double counting in carrying out this stage of the sentencing process,” Sir Patrick Elias said.

The appeal judges found the discount for the guilty plea “may be thought generous” given it was entered one working day before trial.

“In my judgment, the appropriate sentence for the aggravated burglary, before reduction for the plea, was eight years,” Sir Patrick Elias said.

“After the 10% reduction for the plea, this leaves a figure of seven years two months.”

“There is a further 20 weeks for the threat to murder, leaving a total sentence of seven years and seven months.”

“I would round this down to seven and a half years, not least as some recognition of the Appellant’s constructive conduct in prison.”

The judges upheld the appeal in part and reduced the sentence from one of eight and a half years to seven and a half years.

Justin Rodriguez appeared for the Crown.

Mr Costa was assisted by Jeevan Daswani.