SHAUN: NO APPEAL
Crown Office reject huge public demand to mount challenge against lenient four-year sentence given to young dad’s teen killer
THE father of tragic Shaun Woodburn has slammed prosecutors who dashed his appeal hopes.
Kevin Woodburn was told yesterday there would be no challenge to the four-year prison term imposed on the former
Slain footballer Shaun’s father will ‘hound’ legal system and may launch civil case against his killer
footballer’s killer. Kevin has been leading a campaign urging the Crown Office and Lord Advocate James Wolffe to challenge the sentence in the appeal court.
But yesterday Shaun’s family were told the Crown do not believe the sentence was “unduly lenient” and they will not be appealing the sentence of the 17-year-old killer, who we cannot name because of his age.
The killer attacked Shaun, 30, outside an Edinburgh pub on Hogmanay. Shaun died three days later having suffered massive head injuries.
Last month, the teenager, who was 16 at the time of the killing, was found guilty of culpable homicide and sentenced to four years. He could be free in as little as two.
The sentence was met with a huge public outcry and the campaign, Justice For Shaun, has been running for almost four weeks. Almost 70,000 members of the public signed a petition urging the Lord Advocate to appeal, including local MSPs.
Former Labour leader Kezia Dugdale also wrote to the family saying she would be asking questions in Parliament about the sentence.
Last night, Kevin slammed the decision by the Crown Office and vowed to take private legal action against the killer if necessary.
He said: “Shaun’s life and indeed his death doesn’t matter to anyone. If four years is deemed acceptable for the taking of a man’s life then the sentencing guidelines in this legal system Scotland has are wrong. The value of life means nothing to the legal world.
“I want to know who made this decision. Was it the Crown counsel who recommended no appeal? Has James Wolffe even looked at the report? Does this show the Crown Office is out of touch with the normal law-abiding man in the street?
“The whole process is geared to the defendant from start to finish. There was no voice for my son in that courtroom.
“I was asked to be a witness for the prosecution. A character witness for my son so the jury could hear about him as a person and his life. I was never called.”
Last month, we revealed the teenage killer is set to appeal his conviction for killing dad-of-one Shaun.
The trial heard how the teenage thug and his friends had gone on a violent rampage around Edinburgh before they arrived at Gladstones Bar in Leith.
Furious Kevin raged: “The fact is during the trial they tried to make out my son, who never had a fight in his life, had somehow been involved in the fight outside.
“The CCTV showed Shaun standing there with his arms folded. They tried to paint my kind, loving boy as a thug.
“It’s abhorrent that anyone would consider a family being robbed of a son, a brother, a daddy, a grandson is worth the paltry punishment they gave to his killer. [These] sentencing guidelines need changed and I will be hounding everyone I can to do all I can to ensure no family has to suffer what we have.
“If it means a civil case against his killer, so be it.
“I’d also like to add that the appeal decision has not been fully discussed with my family by the Crown. A hasty phone call yesterday is all we got. Victims and their families are treated with zero compassion and care.”
A spokesman for the Crown Office said: “The Crown indicted the accused for the murder of Shaun Woodburn.
“The jury convicted him of culpable homicide and he was sentenced to five years and six months of which four years is the custodial term followed by an 18-month extension period. The issue of whether the sentence was unduly lenient required to be addressed on the basis that the death of Mr Woodburn was caused by a single punch which caused him to fall to the ground sustaining a fatal injury to his head. The accused was 16 years old at the time of the offence and had no previous convictions. “The Crown can proceed with an appeal that the sentence is unduly lenient only where the relevant test is met, namely, whether the sentence falls outside the range of sentences that a judge applying his or her mind to all of the relevant factors could reasonably have considered appropriate. “In this case, Crown counsel have concluded that the test for an appeal has not been met and accordingly have decided there will be no appeal against the sentence.” The family are expecting to meet prosecutors today, when the decision will be explained in full.
Victims and their families are treated with zero compassion