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JUDGEMENT
ON THE SHEPPARD/WHITTLE APPEAL
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Neutral Citation Number:
[2010] EWCA Crim 65 |
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Case No:
2008.04402 B5
2009.04021 B5
2009.04020 B5
2008.04486 B5
2009.00658 B5 |
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
ON APPEAL FROM THE CROWN COURT AT LEEDS
HHJ GRANT
2009.04020b5*1
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Royal Courts of
Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
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29/01/2010 |
B e f o r e :
LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER
MR JUSTICE PENRY-DAVEY
and
MR JUSTICE CRANSTON
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Between:
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Regina
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Respondent
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- v -
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Simon Guy SHEPPARD and
Stephen WHITTLE
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Appellants
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Mr. A. DAVIES (instructed by Williamsons, Hull) for
the Appellant Sheppard
Mrs L. TURNBULL (instructed by Payne & Payne, Hull) for the
Appellant Whittle
Mr J. SANIDFORD and Ms. Denise BREEN-LAWTON for the Respondent
Hearing dates: 26 and 27 November 2009
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HTML VERSION OF JUDGMENT
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Crown Copyright ©
Lord Justice Scott Baker:
- These two appellants appeal with
the leave of the full court against their convictions for a number of
offences relating to racially inflammatory material under the Public
Order Act 1986 ("The 1986 Act") The Registrar referred their sentence
applications to this court.
- The history of the proceedings
is, in brief, as follows. On 11 July 2008 in the Crown Court at Leeds
before Judge Grant and a jury Whittle was convicted of four counts of
publishing racially inflammatory material (counts 4, 5, 7 and 8).
Sheppard was convicted of 9 counts of publishing racially inflammatory
material (counts 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14 and 15).
- They then left the jurisdiction
and went to the United States of America where they claimed asylum. The
trial continued in their absence. On 14 July 2005 Whittle was convicted
by a majority of 10 to 1 of one further count of the same offence –
count 6 – and Sheppard by a majority of 10 to 1 of two further counts
of the same offence – counts 6 and 10.
- There were 7 counts in relation
to Sheppard on which the jury was unable to agree. These were:
Counts 1, 2, 17 and 18 – possessing racially inflammatory
material.
Counts 3 and 11 – publishing racially inflammatory
material.
Count 16 – distributing racially inflammatory material.
- There was a retrial in Sheppard's
absence and he was convicted of counts 1, 3, 16, 17 and 18. On 8
January 2009 he was found not guilty on the judge's direction of count
2 and the prosecution did not proceed with count 11.
- The claim for asylum in the USA
was refused and the two appellants were returned to the jurisdiction.
On 10 July 2009 Sheppard was sentenced to a total of 4 years and 10
months imprisonment and Whittle to a total of 2 years and 4 months
imprisonment. Included in those sentences were 4 months consecutive
sentences for bail offences. The Bail Act sentences are not the subject
of the present appeals. The judge also made forfeiture orders under
section 143 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 in
respect of which Sheppard seeks an extension of time and leave to
appeal.
- The broad nature of the
prosecution case was that Whittle composed material which he submitted
by e-mail to Sheppard. Sheppard edited the material on his computer and
then uploaded it to a website called heretical.com which was set up by
him and was hosted by a remote server located in Torrance, California.
When posted on the website the material was available for access via
the internet by visitors to the website, including people within the
jurisdiction of England and Wales.
- Count 1 related to the possession
by Sheppard on 30 May 2005 of a pamphlet called Tales of the Holohoax
which was found on a search of his home in East Yorkshire. It was a
publication in the form of a comic book, the central theme of which was
to cast doubt on the existence of the Holocaust. The publication also
suggested that the Jewish people had a history of inventing stories of
the commission of atrocities against them and it portrayed the Jewish
people in a way that, as was alleged, made it likely that racial hatred
would be stirred up against them if the pamphlet was distributed. Count
2 contained an allegation in identical terms against Sheppard, but a
year later.
- Count 3 related to the
publication by Sheppard of the Tales of the Holohoax pamphlet in full
on the heretical.com website. There was evidence from a police officer,
DC Brown, who visited the site and downloaded the documents.
- Counts 4 to 8 related to a
number of other articles written by Whittle, edited by Sheppard and
published by Sheppard on the heretical.com website. All the articles
were alleged to contain derogatory remarks about Jewish people and
black people.
- Counts 9 to 15 related to the
publication by Sheppard on the heretical.com website of a number of
other documents which were likewise alleged to contain material that
was threatening, abusive or insulting towards various racial groups.
- Counts 16 related to the
distribution by Sheppard of a pamphlet called "Don't be Sheeple" which
was likewise alleged to be racially inflammatory, count 17 to the
possession by him on 4 July 2008 of a number of copies of that pamphlet
and count 18 to the possession by him on the same date of a number of
copies of the Tales of the Holohoax pamphlet.
- Matters came to light in this
way. On 13 August 2004 Professor Klug, a research fellow with the
Centre for the Study of Human Rights at the London School of Economics
forwarded to Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, a pamphlet entitled
Tales of the Holohoax which had been sent to her personally. Four days
earlier on 9 August 2004 a Mr Whine had written to the Chief Constable
of Lancashire complaining that the same pamphlet had been received by
the Blackpool Reform Synagogue. A similar complaint was made to the
Western Division Police Headquarters. The Crown Prosecution Service was
invited to consider prosecuting the publisher under Part III of the
1986 Act.
- Sheppard was traced through the
publisher's address printed on the pamphlet. The Crown Prosecution
Service decided that Tales of the Holohoax contained words which were
abusive, insulting and possibly threatening towards a racial group,
namely Jewish people and that further investigations were required to
discover the extent of the publication and distribution. In March 2005
Sheppard was arrested and interviewed. It became apparent that he
operated a number of websites, and registrations for 15 websites were
found in his name at his home address. The websites had names such as
heretical.com; klan.org; nazi.org; and whitepower.co.uk. During a
review of this material it became apparent that Whittle had been
writing articles under the pseudonym of Luke O'Farrell and these were
published by Sheppard on his website heretical.com.
- Having edited the material,
Sheppard posted it to the website in Torrance California. In order to
do this he used a format known as File Transfer Protocol. Once the
material reached the server, the server then converted the format of
the material to HTML which made it available to be accessed on the
internet by those visiting the website, including people within the
jurisdiction of England and Wales. Sheppard had control of the website
as far as its contents were concerned. He could upload and edit
material.
- The appellants do not challenge
the jury's findings that in each of the counts in respect of which they
were convicted the material was racially inflammatory; nor could they.
Rather, the appeal is concerned with issues of law.
- The appeals against conviction
concern only those counts relating to the internet; that is counts 3 –
15. Indeed the other counts (1, 2, 16, 17 and 18), which concerned
Sheppard only, related to hard copy material. Each of the internet
counts of which the appellants were convicted involved an allegation of
publishing racially inflammatory material contrary to section 19 (1) of
the 1986 Act.
- Section 19 of the 1986 Act
provides:
"(1) A person who publishes or distributes
written material which is threatening abusive or insulting is guilty of
an offence if –
a) He intends thereby to stir up racial hatred, or
b) Having regard to all the circumstances, racial
hatred is likely to be stirred up thereby.
(2) In proceedings for an offence under this
section it is a defence for an accused who is not shown to have
intended to stir up racial hatred to prove that he was not aware of the
content of the material and did not suspect, and had no reason to
suspect, that it was threatening, abusive or insulting.
(3) References in this part to the publication or
distribution of written material are to its publication or distribution
to the public or to a section of the public."
- The appellants advance three
grounds of appeal. The main one relates to jurisdiction, the argument
being that a publication on the internet is only cognisable in the
jurisdiction where the web server upon which it is hosted is located
and since in this case the location was California the publication
falls outside the jurisdiction of England and Wales. We would add that
it is common ground that none of the material charged by the internet
counts is illegal in the United States of America. The other grounds
concern the meaning of "publication" in section 19 and the application
of section 19 to publication on the internet and whether the material
published on the internet was "written material" within the meaning of
section 29 of the 1986 Act. Section 29 provides that "written material"
includes any sign or other visible representation.
Jurisdiction
- The judge found that the test
to be applied was to be found in the case of R v Smith (Wallace
Duncan) (No.4) [2004] 2Cr App R 17, [2004]
EWCA Crim 631. That is that the Crown Court had jurisdiction to try
the appellants for their conduct because a substantial measure of the
activities constituting the crime took place in England. He rejected
the appellants' arguments that the determinative factors were (1) that
the act of publishing took place in California when the format of the
material supplied by Sheppard was converted to allow it to become
accessible on the internet, and when it was accessed by other people
clicking on the website; (2) that the act complained of did not
constitute a criminal offence in the United States of America because
it was not only not a criminal act but also specifically protected by
the First Amendment to the American Constitution; and (3) that the
wording of section 42 of the 1986 Act was different from the
jurisdictional wording of, for example, the Theft Act 1968 and thus the
Wallace Duncan Smith (No.4) line of authority was not
applicable.
- The judge said in his ruling
that the test to be applied was summed up effectively in a quotation at
paragraph 55 of the judgment of Lord Woolf C.J. in Wallace Duncan
Smith (No.4) citing Rose L.J. in Smith (No 1):
"The passage in Treacy v DPP to which Roberts CJ
refers is the celebrated discussion by Lord Diplock of the bounds of
comity and the judgment of La Forest J in Libman contains a
most valuable analysis of the English authorities on the justicability
of crime in the English courts which ends with the following
conclusions:
The English Courts have decisively begun to
move away from definitional obsessions and technical formulations aimed
at finding a single situs of a crime by locating where the gist of the
crime occurred or where it was completed. Rather, they now appear to
seek by an examination of relevant policies to apply the English
criminal law where a substantial measure of the activities constituting
the crime take place in England, and restricts its application in such
circumstances solely to cases where it can seriously be argued on a
reasonable view that these activities should on the basis of
international comity not be dealt with by another country."
- The judge pointed out that the
material complained of was prepared in England and Wales, was uploaded
onto the website from England and Wales and that this must have been
done by Sheppard in the knowledge and with the expectation and intent
that the material should be available to the public or a section of it
within the jurisdiction in England and Wales. He noted there were
references to postage for people living in England and Wales should
they wish to have the materials sent to them by post. Thus it was in
the contemplation of Sheppard that people in England and Wales should
have access to the material which he posted on the website. Further,
the material appearing on the computer user's screen was exactly or
substantially in the same form as it was when it was uploaded by
Sheppard. He added that even if the defence were correct that a novus
actus occurred in California at the point at which the server was
utilised (which the judge said he seriously doubted was the case), use
of the server was merely a stage in the transmission of the material
requiring no intervention once the website was activated. Any novus
actus could only be regarded as that of an agent acting on behalf of
Sheppard and thus the act in English law of the principal. It could
not, the judge said, be seriously argued on a reasonable view of all
the evidence that the appellants' activities should, on the basis of
international comity, be dealt with by another country.
- Mr Sandiford, for the Crown,
submits that the judge was correct to rule that the "substantial
measure "test was satisfied for the following reasons:
- Sheppard operated and controlled the
website from within the jurisdiction;
- the material was uploaded, maintained and
controlled from within the jurisdiction;
- the material, the subject of counts 4 – 8,
was written and edited within the jurisdiction;
- the material the subject of counts 9 – 15
was collated and selected within the jurisdiction;
- Sheppard's website included a dedicated
British page (no other country had such a page) on the website and
offered books for sale with prices and postage quoted in sterling;
- Sheppard's website and Whittle's column in
which the material the subject to counts 4 – 9 was published were
linked to websites such as that of the British People's Party;
- E-mail traffic between the appellants
revealed their intention to publish the material on the website within
the jurisdiction and they claimed to have done so in order to satirise
political correctness and redress an unbalanced media.
- There was in our view abundant
material to satisfy the "substantial measure" test. However, Mr Adrian
Davies for Sheppard in a submission supported by Mrs Linda Turnbull for
Whittle submits that this is not the correct test and that Wallace
Duncan Smith (No. 4) is of no assistance in determining
the issue of jurisdiction in the present case. Wallace Duncan Smith was
convicted of one count of fraudulent trading contrary to section 458 of
the Companies Act 1985 and two counts of obtaining property by
deception contrary to section 15 of the Theft Act 1968. Smith, a
Canadian national, was chairman and managing director of a merchant
bank which ceased trading in 1991. It was subsequently wound up owing
its unsecured creditors some £92m. It also controlled other
companies based in Canada, including Wallace Smith Holdings (WSH).
Working from this country and using a group of companies which he
controlled, Smith set up various bogus deals between the merchant bank
and WSH which boosted the size of the merchant bank's profits. While
the dishonest arrangements were put into operation by Smith in this
country, the obtaining of the money took place outside the jurisdiction
when the money was paid into a bank account in New York.
- The problem faced by the court
in Wallace Duncan Smith (No 4) was a conflict between
the decisions of this court in Smith (No. 1) [1996] 2
CAR 1 and R v Manning [1999]
QB 980. As the Lord Chief Justice observed at paragraph 48, the
issue was an important one and involved the extent to which it was
appropriate for the court to develop the common law as to jurisdiction
in order to meet the changing requirements of society. In the event the
court followed Smith (No. 1) and in doing so the Lord
Chief Justice cited from the opinion of Lord Griffiths in Liangsiriprasert
v Government of United States of America (1991) 92 Cr App R 77,90.
"Unfortunately in this Century crime has ceased
to be largely local in origin and effect. Crime is now established on
an international scale and the criminal law must face this new reality.
Their lordships can find nothing in precedent, comity or good sense
that should inhibit the common law from regarding as justiciable in
England inchoate crimes committed abroad which are intended to result
in the commission of criminal offences in England."
- Lord Woolf went on to point out
that Liangsiriprasert was applied in Sansom & ors (1991)
92 Cr App R 115 in a judgment delivered by Taylor LJ. Sansom was
another conspiracy case and Lord Woolf could see no distinction in
relation to the principles of jurisdiction between conspiracy and
obtaining by deception.
- We have to consider whether
there is any basis for not applying in the present case the
"substantial measure" principle for establishing jurisdiction as
enunciated by the Lord Chief Justice in Wallace Duncan Smith
(No.4). The starting point seems to us to be the terms of the
1986 Act. Mr Sandiford points out that sections 18, 19 and 23 contain a
comprehensive scheme to restrict the public dissemination of written
material intended or likely to stir up racial hatred. Section 18 covers
display of such written material, section 19 publication and
distribution and section 23 possession. In the interpretation section
of the Act, section 29 "written material" is described as including any
sign or any visible representation. Whilst in 1986 the world-wide web
was a thing of the future and computers were in their infancy it seems
to us clear that "written material" is plainly wide enough to cover the
material disseminated by the website in the present case. The judge
took the same view. He said that what was on the computer screen was
first of all in writing or written and secondly that the electronically
stored data which is transmitted also comes within the definition of
written material because it is written material stored in another form.
He drew a comparison with opening and closing a book; when the book is
open you can see the writing; when it is closed you cannot.
- The judge was referred to
Hansard. Both the appellants and the Crown sought to rely on it. The
appellants argue that Hansard makes clear that no consideration was
given, when the Bill was debated, to the internet. The Crown argue that
the debate illustrates Parliament's intention was to ensure that
"written material" in Part III of the 1986 Act was wide enough to cover
new forms of communication so that racist organisations and others
could not advance the type of argument being put forward in the present
case.
- For our part we think that the
meaning of "written material" as interpreted by section 29 is
sufficiently clear to cover the present case without recourse to
Hansard. The word "includes" in section 29 is plainly intended to widen
the scope of the expression. We reject Mrs Turnbull's submission that
the written material has to be in visible, comprehensible form with
some degree of permanence. We also reject the submission that any
assistance is to be obtained from the Obscene Publications Act 1959
which, as originally drafted, was not wide enough to embrace electronic
publication.
- Mr Davies draws our attention
to the Sexual Offences Act 2003 where Parliament has legislated to
criminalise certain categories of conduct regardless of where the
offences are committed and whether or not the conduct is illegal in the
country in which it is committed. He submits that the absence of any
provisions similar to sections 47 – 50 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003
in the 1986 Act in a clear pointer limiting its extent to England and
Wales.
- Section 42 of the 1986 Act
provides that the provisions of the Act extend to England and Wales
save for some limited exceptions that mainly relate to Scotland and
Northern Ireland. We do not think it assists in taking the present case
outside the jurisdiction principle in Wallace Duncan Smith (No
4). We agree with the judge that section 42 is not a restriction of
jurisdiction to England and Wales, rather it sets out the limitations
imposed by the statute as to its extent within England and Wales. It
sets out the extent to which the Act applies within England and Wales.
It is not determinative of the jurisdiction of the courts of England
and Wales.
- The position seems to us to be
as follows. The conduct the relevant provisions of the Act seek to
prevent is the dissemination of material intended or likely to stir up
racial hatred. In the present case under section 19 we are concerned
with publication of such material, to which we shall come in a moment.
The reality is that, as expressed by the judge, almost everything in
this case related to this country. This is where the appellants
operated one in Preston, the other in Hull; this is where the material
was generated, edited, uploaded and controlled. The material was aimed
primarily at the British public. The only "foreign" element was that
the website was hosted by a server in Torrance California and, as the
judge observed, the use of the server was merely a stage in the
transmission of the material.
- What is the test for
jurisdiction if it is not as set out in Wallace Duncan Smith (No.4)?
Mr Davies submitted that there were essentially 3 jurisprudential
theories at to publications on the internet. The first is that a
publication is only cognisable in the jurisdiction where the web server
upon which it is hosted is situated - the country of origin theory. The
second is that publication on the internet is cognisable in any
jurisdiction in which it can be down-loaded – the country of
destination theory. The third is that while a publication is always
cognisable in the jurisdiction where the web server upon which it is
hosted is situated, it is also cognisable in a jurisdiction at which
the publication is targeted – the directing and targeting theory. Since
we have come to the clear conclusion that the jurisdiction is governed
by the substantial measure principle enunciated by this court in Wallace
Duncan Smith (No.4) it is unnecessary for us to explore any of
these three theories or the effect of applying them to the facts of
this case. It seems to us that the substantial measure test not only
accords with the purpose of the relevant provisions of the 1985 Act it
also reflects the practicalities of the present case.
Publication
- Before us Mr Davies put
publication at the forefront of his argument submitting that if, as he
contended was the case, there was no publication that was the end of
the case. His argument is that one cannot have a publication without a
publishee (or rather sufficient publishees) to constitute a section of
the public as required by section 19 (3) of the 1986 Act. The judge
noted that the only direct evidence of there being a publishee was that
of the police officer, DC Brown, and that in one sense he was a
self-publishee. In our view, however, the judge put it correctly when
he said that what the Crown had to show was that there was publication
to the public or a section of the public in that the material was
generally accessible to all or available to or was placed before or
offered to the public and that that could be proved by the evidence of
one or more witnesses. This accords with the definition of publish and
publication in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary. As Kennedy L.J. put it in
R v Perrin [2002] EWCA Crim 747, a
case under the Obscene Publications Act 1959, at paragraph 22 "the
publication relied on in this case is the making available of preview
material to any viewer who may chose to access it …" The material in
the present case was available to the public despite the fact that the
evidence went no further than establishing that one police constable
downloaded it. It is also to be noted that the natural meaning of
publication, as applied by the judge gives effect to the two distinct
offences under section 19 of publication and distribution of racially
inflammatory material. It also fits neatly with the scheme of Part III
of the 1986 Act which creates a comprehensive range of offences in
respect of racially inflammatory written material namely section 18 –
displaying, section 19 – publishing or distributing and section 23 –
possession with a view to the material being displayed published
distributed etc.
- The point that there cannot be
publication without a publishee is in our judgment fundamentally
misconceived. It is based on an irrelevant comparison with the law of
libel. Libel is a tort or civil wrong where it is necessary for the
claimant to prove that the words complained of were published of him
and were defamatory of him. Nor does criminal libel assist, for reading
out socially inflammatory words will amount to an offence under section
18 (1). Further, the offences of displaying, distributing or publishing
racially inflammatory written material do not require proof that
anybody actually read or heard the material.
Written Material
- The appellants' third ground of
appeal contends that even if there was publication and the English
court has jurisdiction, any publication was not of written material. We
have covered most of the appellants' arguments on this point when
dealing with the issue of jurisdiction and explained why in our view
the contention is misconceived. For completeness we should say that we
are not persuaded by Mr Davies' eiusdem generis argument which is that
"written material" should be limited to something akin to a sign. What
section 29 says is that "written material" includes any sign or
other visible representation and in our view those words are
sufficiently wide to include articles in electronic form.
- In our judgment there is no
merit in any of the appellants' grounds of appeal against conviction.
Sentence
- The question is whether the
sentences of 4½ years for Sheppard and 2 years for Whittle were
either wrong in principle or manifestly excessive. There is no error in
principle; what we need to look at is the totality of the criminal
conduct of each appellant. There is no appeal against the consecutive
sentences of 4 months in each case for the offences under the Bail Act.
Sheppard had to be sentenced for a total of 16 offences, 3 of which
were for possession, 1 for distributing and the remainder for
publishing, racially offensive material. Whittle had to be sentenced
for 5 offences, all for publishing racially offensive material. The
judge structured his sentence in the case of Sheppard in this way. For
counts 1 and 3 which took place between March 2005 and April 2006 12
months imprisonment concurrent; for counts 4 to 10 and 12 to 15 which
all involved setting up, running and editing the website heretical.com
2½ years imprisonment concurrent with each other but consecutive
to the 12 months; and for counts 16 to 18, which were committed on bail
in the summer of 2007, 12 months concurrent with each other but
consecutive to the other groups of sentences. Whittle received
concurrent sentences for each of the 5 offences involving publication
on heretical.com of articles of which he was the author.
- The maximum penalty for each of
these offences was 7 years imprisonment. Sheppard has a previous
conviction for 2 similar offences in 2000 under sections 19 and 23 of
the 1986 Act for which he received a sentence of 9 months imprisonment.
The judge in passing sentence said he had rarely seen or read and had
to consider material that was so abusive and insulting in its content
toward racial groups within society in this country. We agree with that
assessment; this was truly pernicious material. The judge rightly drew
attention to its potential for social harm. He observed that by using a
server in the United States the appellants thought they had found a way
to circumvent English law. We regard the need to deter others as an
important element of sentencing in cases of this kind.
- Mr Davies submits that
Sheppard's sentence is manifestly excessive when measured against the
sentences passed on El Faisal [2004] EWCA Crim 343 (12 months )
and more particularly Abu Hamza [2006] EWCA Crim 2918
(21 months). It is trite to say no two cases are the same.
- The judge having presided over
the two trials was well placed to assess the criminality of each
appellant. That said, however, the point that has most impressed us is
that there is no evidence of how many people saw the material or of the
consequences of their having seen it, although we do know that there
was several thousand "hits" or visits to heretical.com per day. There
was no evidence of any individual having been corrupted, albeit we
appreciate such evidence would unlikely to be forthcoming. Clearly a
substantial sentence was called for in the case of Sheppard because he
was a repeat offender and the offences spanned a not inconsiderable
period as well as being repeated whilst on bail. In our judgment each
of the constituent elements of Sheppard's sentence was amply justified
but we think 4½ years in total was too long. We think the right
sentence would have been 3½ years and accordingly we grant leave
to appeal against sentence and we achieve that result by reducing the
sentences on counts 4 to 10 and 12 to 15 from 2½ years to 18
months. All the other sentences will remain as before. As to Whittle,
his involvement was less than that of Sheppard and over a shorter
period. He had no previous convictions. On the other had he was the
"brains" behind the construction of the offensive material which he fed
to Sheppard. We grant leave in his case too and the concurrent
sentences of 2 years will be reduced to 18 months. Accordingly, after
taking into account the sentences for the Bail Act offences, which are
not the subject of appeal, the total sentence to be served by Sheppard
is 3 years and 10 months and Whittle 1 year and 10 months. We grant
leave to appeal against sentence and vary the sentences to that extent.
Credit is in each case given for the 23 days spent on remand.
Forfeiture
- The judge made a forfeiture
order against Sheppard under section 143 (1) (a) and (b) of the Powers
of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 ("the 2000 Act") with respect
to items of office equipment and computers belonging to him. This
aspect of his appeal against sentence requires an extension of time and
leave to appeal. For reasons we shall explain we do not think there is
any merit in the forfeiture appeal and we refuse both an extension of
time and leave to appeal.
- There was, unfortunately, no
transcript of the judge's ruling on forfeiture but in the event it was
possible to overcome this problem by playing us in court a tape of the
judge's judgment. This was very helpfully transcribed by the shorthand
writer who provided a transcript to the court shortly after the
conclusion of the hearing.
- The judge first referred to
section 143 of the 2000 Act which provides:
"Where a person is convicted of an offence and
the court by or before which he is convicted is satisfied that any
property which has been lawfully seized from him or which was in his
possession or under his control at the time when he was apprehended for
the offence or when a summons in respect of it was issued –
a) has been used for the purpose of committing or
facilitating commission of any offence or
b) was intended by him to be used for that
purpose,
The court may (subject to sub-section (5) below)
make an order under this section in respect of that property."
Subsection (5) provides:
"In considering whether to make an order under
this section in respect of any property, a court shall have regard –
(a) to the value of the property; and
(b) to the likely financial and other effects on
the offender of the making of the order (taken together with any other
order that the court contemplates making)."
- The court had prepared a
schedule. There was agreement about the forfeiture of some items;
others were in dispute. There were two categories of disputed items,
office equipment and computer equipment. The main thrust of Mr Davies'
argument on behalf of Sheppard before the judge was that he had a
legitimate publishing business by which he earned a living and that
loss of the items sought by the Crown to be forfeited would put him in
a precarious financial situation.
- The judge concluded that the
computers had clearly been used for legitimate purposes but that they
had also been used and were intended to be used by Sheppard for
committing or facilitating the commission of offences. The judge did
not consider the forfeiture of these items would constitute excessive
punishment.
- As to office equipment, the
judge again said he had in mind section 143 (5). He referred to the
additional argument that there was no evidence this equipment was used
for the production of any of the hard copies that were distributed. The
judge said he was entitled to draw the inference that the office
equipment in question was, if not used for the commission or
facilitating of offences, intended to be used for such purpose. He said
he was entitled to draw this interference because of Sheppard's
determination and persistence in publishing material of this nature. He
had of course a previous conviction for similar offences and committed
further offences whilst on bail. We cannot fault the judge's reasoning
or his decision. The transcript identifies by number the various items
to be forfeited by Sheppard and it is unnecessary for us to repeat
them.
Conclusion
- (1) The appeals against
conviction are dismissed.
(2) Leave to appeal against sentence is granted and the
appeals against sentence are allowed to the limited extent indicated.
(3) Leave to appeal against the forfeiture order imposed
on Sheppard and an extension of time for doing so is refused.
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