Teenage offender's prison sentence reduced

Wednesday 02 August 2023

A man who was just 17 when he offended has had his jail sentence reduced by the Court of Appeal after it was agreed that it was "manifestly excessive".

Lewis Topley - now 20 - had pleaded guilty to five charges relating to drugs including supplying a Class A substance and offering to supply other substances as well as drug possession.

He also refused to give police the PIN to his phone and has always admitted that Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIPL) offence.

These charges all related to incidents in July 2020.

When he was sentenced in November 2022, Topley was given a total sentence of four years youth detention.

That has now been reduced to 29 months by the Court of Appeal.

Pictured: Lewis Topley was sentenced by the Royal Court, but his sentence was reduced by the Court of Appeal.

Topley's offending was linked with the hospitalisation of a younger girl who had taken MDMA in July 2020.

While he had admitted selling her the drug, the sentencing Court had agreed that it could not be proven conclusively that she had not taken anything else so her severe reaction to the tablet could have been caused by something else.

Topley pleaded guilty to all charges at the earliest opportunity but his appeal raised queries over whether he was given enough of a reduction in his sentence in light of those guilty pleas.

Defence Advocate Chris Green had also provided the Royal Court with details about Topley's background and the Appeal Court agreed that it was not clear whether that had been considered in the original sentence too. 

The Appeal Court found in Topley's favour and reduced his sentences for the four drug related charges - the longest of which is now 29 months youth detention, effective from 7 November 2022.

His 18 month prison sentence for the RIPL offence was upheld and it will also be served concurrently with his other sentences.