A man who assaulted his ex-wife and attacked and threatened to kill another man has lost his bid to reduce his 27-month sentence to take account of pre-trial time spent on curfew.
Sophia Lee, who appeared for Cory Shamar Pusey, argued in the Court of Appeal that her client had been given insufficient credit on his sentence to cover the 659 days he had spent on curfew.
Pusey had been restricted to home between 10pm and 7am up to the date of his sentence.
The three-person panel heard that Justice Cheryll Richards’ 99-day discount was sufficient after she dismissed Pusey’s appeal from the Summary Court to Grand Court against his entire sentence.
But Jonathon Hughes, who appeared for Pusey at that hearing, asked Richards to grant a credit against the overall sentence for the time he was on curfew, which had not been considered in Magistrates’ Court.
Richards considered the request in light of Cayman Sentencing Guidelines on curfews contained in paragraph 12 of the rules and allowed 99 days.
Sentence cut ‘too little’
Lee, however, argued in the appeal court that 99 days was “far too little” and asked the appeal court to increase it.
But the appeal court judges, headed by Sir John Goldring, said that Richards had highlighted that the restriction covered the night hours so the impact would be limited, except for “weekend night outings”.
The panel added that Richards was entitled to exercise her discretion in calculating a discount.
The written judgment handed down earlier this month added, “Challenges to how a judicial discretion has been exercised are limited.
“Unless it has can be demonstrated clearly that the judge exercising the discretion had stepped outside the margin of appreciation that the discount was based upon, or that the judge’s final decision was wholly and demonstrably wrong, the likelihood of any disturbance of such an exercise of discretion is extremely low.”
The appeal court highlighted that Cayman Sentencing Guidelines on discounts for curfews was taken into account by Richards.
99-day discount upheld
Pusey was originally sentenced by a magistrate to 30 days in jail for the assault on his ex-wife and to two years and two months for the threats to kill Raheem Dallay.
He was further sentenced to 11 months behind bars for the assault on Dallay, but to run concurrently with the assault on his former spouse.
The panel of judges said that cases that gave a bigger curfew credit cited by Lee in support of her argument for a reduction were “of very limited assistance to the court because they depended on their particular facts”.
The appeals judgment added, “In the court’s view, there are no reasonably arguable grounds to challenge Justice Richards’ exercise of discretion.
“She explained how she came to the conclusion that the credit should be 99 days. In doing so, she took careful note of the terms of the curfew and of the number of days it lasted and she would have had well in mind paragraph 12 of the Sentencing Guidelines.
“It follows that this application for leave to appeal cannot succeed and is hereby dismissed.”
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