DPP supporting calls for review of sentencing guidelines

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn is supporting calls for a review of sentencing guidelines amid increasing public concern over lenient penalties being imposed for certain offences. 

The current sentencing guidelines were launched by former Chief Justice Zaila McCalla in 2017 about a year and a half after they were drafted.

Llewellyn, speaking today at a Rotary Club luncheon, said she is hoping the current Chief Justice Brian Sykes and president of the Court of Appeal Justice Patrick Brooks would consider convening another committee by year-end to draft new sentencing guidelines.  

It would really be a call for the Chief Justice depending on how he feels after discussing it with his other judges, whether it would be timely,” she said. 

The prosecutor said the review would be timely given the clamour by the public in respect of some recent sentences. 

“Sentencing is the hardest part of a judges' function, so I would make the call, but make it in the context of giving the greatest of respect to the Chief Justice and the President of the Court of Appeal who lead the judiciary,” said the chief prosecutor. 

She said it would be up to the chief justice and the Appeal Court president to appoint, a steering committee to review the sentencing guidelines. 

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