Henry Blackshaw secures reduced sentence for son of Happy Monday’s ex-tour manager

On the 8th March, 2017, Henry Blackshaw secured a reduced sentence for Joel Murray, the son of the Happy Mondays’ ex-tour manager, who was sentenced to seven-years imprisonment for drug trafficking offences, in October, 2016.

The client was arrested in August 2014, aged just seventeen, around the same time that his father, Anthony Murray, commenced a three-year prison sentence also for drug trafficking offences.

On 7th March, 2017, the Sentencing Council released new guidelines for the approach to be taken when sentencing children and young offenders. Part of the revision of the previous guidelines is greater emphasis on looking at factors in the offender’s family background which can reduce their culpability. Henry Blackshaw was able to rely on that aspect of them the following day at the Court of Appeal in successfully arguing that his client’s offending had been directly influenced by such circumstances.

Allowing the appeal, Lord Justice Treacy, sitting with Mr Justice Gilbart and Judge Richard Griffith-Jones said: “The overall term of seven years imposed below was, in our judgment, too long. In the circumstances described, and bearing in mind all the factors, we think that a reduction to a term of five years is the appropriate sentence.”

Read more here: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/joel-murray-drugs-sentence-cut-12715577