R v. Albert William Grannon (2019) and R v. Claire Colebourn (2019) - Comparative study

Extract

[...] The premeditation is also seen in the fact that Colebourn set her alarm clock for 2 am so that it would wake her up and she could murder her daughter. This was no accident. Moreover, Mrs. Colebourn's plan was to kill her daughter and then kill herself in retaliation for her ex-husband leaving her and wanting to spend some time with Bethan. Mr. Grannon's case is very different as the death of his grandson is nothing more but a tragic accident caused by negligence from Mr. [...]

[...] Albert William Grannon at the Sheffield Crown Court in July 2019. Both Judges are Justices on the High Court and they sit in the division known as the Queen's bench where British Common Law is used to trial the cases presented to the court. Both cases revolve around homicides involving children and each of them, a family member has been found guilty for the deaths, thus the sentencing remarks brought to us highlight the verdict of the Justice in each case where they explain and give the specifics of each sentence. [...]

[...] Moreover, Colebourn's mental health did play some part in lowering her sentence while Mr. Grannon's whose mental health is fine has seen his sentence reduced due to his old age and his heart condition. Finally, it is important to point out that Colebourn was sentenced to lifetime of imprisonment with the possibility to go out on licence after 13 years while Grannon will be jailed for a year and a half and will have one extra year and a half on probation. [...]

[...] Indeed, they both start by recollecting the facts and explaining what happened. Then, they look at the aggravating and mitigating factors while giving the appropriate guidelines linked to the case. Finally, they give out the sentence and explain to the defendants how long will be sentenced. Moreover, what is interesting in Grannon's case is that Justice Lavender never uses the word "accident" to describe what happened and uses instead words such as "killing" or "gross negligence" to refer to the defender. [...]

[...] Also, one must notice that the two perpetrators did not have any prior conviction and showed good character throughout their lives, thus these factors lowered their conviction. The most striking difference in these two cases is that Mrs. Colebourn has been charged with murder while Mr. Grannon has been accused of Manslaughter. The reason why both of them have not been charged with the same crime is because the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Bethan Colebourn and Stanley Metcalfe are very different. Mrs. Colebourn voluntarily killed her daughter. [...]