Wed, 05 Oct 2016
Simon Hunka has been praised in the Court of Appeal for his advocacy in Attorney-General's Reference No. 28 of 2016 (R v Ben Jackson) [2016] EWCA Crim 1382.
He was commended after having persuaded Lady Justice Rafferty, Mr Justice Gilbart and HHJ Radford (the Recorder of Redbridge) to leave unaltered a 2-year suspended sentence in the case of a man who had committed a planned knifepoint robbery of a youth.
There were many aggravating features which, it was argued by the Solicitor General, should have increased the starting point to such an extent that a suspended sentence was not a viable option.
Mr Hunka however argued that, due to the naivety of the Defendant (who suffers with ADHD), there was scope to view these features in a different context.
In her judgment, Rafferty LJ commended Mr Hunka for his submissions and, at paragraph 24, stated: "In our judgment an offender can seldom have been better served by his counsel than is this young man by Mr Hunka".
The Court indicated that the sentence was unduly lenient but, as a result of the submissions of Mr Hunka, no further acition was taken.
To view Simon Hunka's profile please click here.
