Louise Oakley responded to the Applicant’s application for leave to appeal against his 2006 conviction for Causing Grievous Bodily Harm to his 3 month old daughter. The Applicant had pleaded guilty to the offence in 2006. He was sentenced. In February 2020, the Applicant’s daughter died as a result of the chest infection linked to the brain injury and associated disabilities she had sustained when the Applicant had shaken his daughter. The Applicant was subsequently charged with Manslaughter. In 2024, the Applicant was found not guilty of manslaughter (the Crown were not represented by Louise Oakley).
Following his acquittal, the Applicant submitted that his conviction by his guilty plea was unsafe because the not guilty verdict to manslaughter established that he did not commit grievous bodily harm on his 3 month old daughter.
Louise on behalf of the Respondent submitted that it has not been established that the Applicant’s confession of guilt in 2006 was other than freely made, and that the jury’s verdict in the manslaughter trial does not prove to the requisite standard that the Applicant did not inflict grievous bodily harm on Molly in 2005.
The appeal was dismissed. The Applicant’s acquittal did not establish that he had not committed grievous bodily harm on his daughter.
The principles in the leading authority of R v Tredget [2022] EWCA Crim 108; [2022] 4 WLR 62, a decision of this Court (Fulford LJ, VP-CACD, Hilliard J and Lord Hughes) applied.
Louise was instructed by Alex Slater, Specialist Prosecutor from the Appeals and Review Unit in the Crown Prosecution Service.
