Taxi driver who battered Cardiff City fan sees jail sentence cutA taxi driver who attacked a Cardiff City fan with a fire extinguisher outside the city’s central railway station has had his prison sentence slashed on appeal.
Martin Gregory Smith, 57, of Heol Briwnant, Rhiwbina, Cardiff, was convicted of wounding with intent and possession of an offensive weapon at Cardiff Crown Court and jailed for eight years in July.
But top judges at London’s Court of Appeal allowed Smith’s appeal against his sentence, cutting his term to six years after his legal team said his sick wife needed him home as soon as possible.
Mr Justice Irwin told the court Smith had launched a “ferocious” assault with a fire extinguisher on a 25-year-old football fan on February 4.
The victim, who had earlier been to watch a Cardiff City match, accidentally knocked a beer bottle against Smith’s cab before climbing into a friend’s car outside the station.
The judge added: “Smith opened the car door and dragged him out and repeatedly struck him about the face and head.
“The man had no idea how this incident had been initiated and what was going on. The attack only came to an end when the man’s friend and another bystander intervened.”
The victim suffered cuts and gashes to his head and needed staples in the wounds. He also suffered “significant psychological” problems after the attack.
Smith fled the scene and either replaced the cab’s fire extinguisher or “meticulously” cleaned it before police could forensically test it, the judge said.
Smith’s legal team asked the court to cut the father-of-four’s sentence as his wife, who suffers from sickle cell anaemia, has been diagnosed with clinical depression and is badly in need of his care.
Smith’s lawyer told judges: “The best I can do is to ask you to stop the suffering of his family as early as possible.”
Mr Justice Irwin said Smith had to work as a part-time taxi driver after he was made redundant from his long-term job as a site manager.
The judge said that Smith had been a “respectable citizen” who fostered children and cared for his wife and children before the attack.
Mr Justice Irwin added: “Very shortly before the incident in question – it seems to have been on the day – Smith learned that his daughter had suffered a miscarriage with associated health problems.”
Sitting alongside Lord Justice Hughes and Mr Justice Ramsey, the judge said Smith’s was one of “very few” cases where personal circumstances made a sentence cut appropriate.
Allowing the appeal, he added: “We are in a position where we have had more material than the sentencing judge. We recognise that the consequences of this sentence have been devastating for Mr Smith and the rest of his family.
“And that material must be seen in context with this offence, bad as it was, and his contribution for many years living as a respectable citizen.
“After considering with care – with no sense of criticism of the trial judge on the evidence of the conviction – we will quash the sentence of eight years and reduce it somewhat to six years imprisonment.”
Smith will serve half his new sentence before qualifying for automatic release.
source: Wales Online
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/cardiffonl ... z2DVX9sQxd
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