Introduction
Barring appeals, the final chapter in the legal side of the Becky Watts case finished on 5th February 2016 as two people were sentenced for their role in helping Nathan Matthews and Shuana Hoare.
We covered the case here, with more details of the sentencing here, including a link to the sentencing remarks. These give an overview of the facts of the case.
Sentences
Karl Demetrius, and his partner Jaydene Parsons helped out by agreeing to let Mr Matthews hide something in their shed. They knew that this was in relation to something illegal but, as the Judge made clear, they had no idea what he had done and believed it related to stolen good or cannabis.
Sentencing for this is difficult – on the one hand people should only be sentenced for the criminality that they believed they were engaged in. On the other, the horrific nature of the crime cannot be ignored.
We suggested that the likely sentence would be in the region of 2 years for Mr Demetrius and a suspended sentence for Ms Parsons. How did we do?
Spot on in relation to Mr Demetrius – he got 2 years. We were right that Ms Parsons would get less, but whilst we thought she would get a suspended sentence she actually got 16 months immediate.
Will there be an appeal? Probably not, or probably not a successful one at least.