When Her (late) Majesty, Queen Elizabeth died in 2022, I noted one of the things we were told we’d see change was the names of criminal cases. We’d all been used to seeing Regina v Surname but instead, we’d see Rex v Surname. Today’s sentencing at the Old Bailey is actually the first time I’ve seen it written down in real use so I wanted to pause first and note it.
Lee Byer pleaded guilty in April this year to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility after he stabbed Mr Tom O’Halloran in Greenford, west London. He had only been released from prison five days before the cowardly attack and this is yet another case of a type we’ve seen all too often in recent months.
An unprovoked killing with a bladed weapon, someone who had been only recently released from prison and then judicial considerations of whether the correct sentence is a restricted hospital order or a hybrid order. It’s all just far too familiar.
RESTRICTED OR HYBRID
You may remember that only last week, the Court of Appeal had to rule in very similar circumstances whether the imposition of a restricted hospital order had been unduly lenient. They were invited to consider that it was and that a hybrid order should have been imposed instead to provide a ‘penal element’ to the sentence. They ruled the sentence was not unduly lenient.
Mr Byer attacked poor Mr O’Halloran in August 2022 whilst he was in his mobility scooter with his accordion. He was well known in his local area for playing music to raise money for various worthy causes and he was raising funds at the time to assist campaigns in Ukraine. It was determined Mr Byer psychotic at the time of the attack, having had anti-psychotic medications whilst in prison and diagnosed with schizophrenia.
You can read the sentencing remarks from the sentencing judge and within, as with other cases where it’s relevant, you can see clear articulation of how the consideration has been reached to impose a restricted hospital order, rather than a hybrid order and clear reference to previous case law, Regina v Vowles and others.
PRISON RELEASE
It’s many years since the killing of Christina Edkins in Birmingham in 2011 – a tragic attack on a teenage girl on her way to school one morning. It particularly resonated with me because I’d worked that area as a PC for four years at the start of my police career. Philip Simelane was swiftly arrested for the attach and he also pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility having originally been charged with murder.
We learned in that case, as in this, the defendant had been released from prison only days before the attack and the review which followed was scathing about the lack of planning and preparation for release.
We also saw the recent inquest after the death of Jacob Billington, also in Birmingham. Mr Billington was killed by a man released only days earlier from Parc Prison in South Wales – again, a lack of planning and preparation was levelled at HM Prison Service by the Coroner, something which will no doubt be explored in the inquest for Mr O’Halloran which is yet to be held.
Very sad cases and, as ever:
We’re not just guilty of failing to learn lessons – we’re repeatedly guilty of failing to learn repeated lessons.
Winner of the President’s Medal, the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Winner of the Mind Digital Media Award
All opinions expressed are my own – they do not represent the views of any organisation. (c) Michael Brown, 2024
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