Evans, R v, Court of Appeal - Criminal Division, April 02, 2009, [2009] EWCA Crim 650

Reporting Judge: [2009] EWCA Crim 650

President: Evans, R v

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Evans, R v, Court of Appeal - Criminal Division, April 02, 2009, [2009] EWCA Crim 650

Neutral Citation Number: [2009] EWCA Crim 650

Case No: 2008/02597/B2

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE

COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)

ON APPEAL FROM THE CROWN COURT AT SWANSEA

Mr Justice Lloyd Jones

Royal Courts of Justice

Strand, London, WC2A 2LL

Date: 02/04/2009

Before :

THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENGLAND AND WALES

LORD JUSTICE MOORE-BICK

MR JUSTICE CALVERT SMITH

MR JUSTICE CHRISTOPHER CLARKE

MR JUSTICE HOLROYDE

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Between :

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Mr Ian Murphy QC and Mr D.Ll. Thomas for the Appellant

Mr Paul Thomas QC and Mr J Hipkin for the Crown

Hearing dates : 24th February 2009

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Judgment

The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales :

1. This is an appeal against conviction by Gemma Evans, who together with her mother, Andrea Townsend, was convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence in the Crown Court at Swansea before Lloyd Jones J and a jury. The conviction arose from the death of Carly Townsend, on 3 May 2007. She was not quite 17 years old. Andrea Townsend was her mother, and the appellant was her older half sister.

2. Carly Townsend was born in June 1990. The appellant was born in October 1982. Both had a history of heroin addiction. So did their mother. In January 2007, Carly was sentenced to a six month detention and training order. During this period she underwent detoxification. She refused substitute medication. She was seeking to overcome her addiction. She had no access to heroin for 3 months.

3. She was released on licence on 23 April 2007. It was a condition of her licence that she should observe a curfew and live at her mother's home at Llanelli, where her mother was living with her youngest child, a teenage son.

4. According to the eviden...

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