Sentence of a man convicted of Attempted Murder leaves some questions

On Friday a man was formally found by the Judge to be “not dangerous” after having been convicted of the Attempted Murder of his girlfriend by stabbing her in the chest and stomach eight times after she had said she was going to leave him.

Although the Defendant had consumed both cocaine and alcohol before he fetched the knife, the PSR advised the incident had arisen out of domestic circumstances that were unlikely to recurr.

Tony Prosser, who was prosecuting at the trial, regards this as an example of the current reluctance of the courts to impose sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection where formerly they would have done so.