The Sentencing Council guideline, issued this week, is effective from 1 January. It sets a statutory maximum of five years’ custody for the non-aggravated offence, and seven years where the offence is racially or religiously aggravated.
The offences were created by the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 and came into force on 7 June 2022. Judges and magistrates have up till now been applying the approach of R v Cook [2023] EWCA Crim 452 to strangulation and suffocation offences.
Her Honour Judge Rosa Dean, leading on the guideline for the Sentencing Council, said: ‘Strangulation and suffocation are very serious offences that create a real and justified fear of death.
‘Victims can experience extreme terror and a high degree of psychological harm, even where no physical injuries are visible.’
Last week, the Lord Chancellor, Shabana Mahmood confirmed strangulation and homicide connected with the end of a relationship will be made statutory aggravating factors for murder. This implements two actions recommended in 2023 by Clare Wade KC’s independent Domestic Homicide Sentencing Review.
Mahmood has also taken steps toward tackling the backlog in the criminal courts by appointing former Queen’s Bench Division president Sir Brian Leveson to conduct a review. The Crown Court backlog has now risen above 73,000 for the first time.
Sir Brian will explore a range of options including introducing an intermediate tier of courts where a judge and two magistrates will hear cases that are too serious for the magistrates’ courts but not among the most serious of Crown Court cases.
He will present his initial recommendations in the spring.
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