Man convicted of Great Yarmouth murder, released and jailed again, has appeal against sentence refused
Stuart Layden was convicted in 2013 of murdering Ian Church in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in May 2012
A man who had his murder conviction quashed and then restored has failed in an appeal to reduce his sentence.
Stuart Layden was convicted in 2013 of murdering Ian Church in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in May 2012, and was handed a mandatory life sentence with a minimum jail term of 13 years.
The Court of Appeal overturned the conviction in 2015 and ordered a retrial, after which Layden was jailed again until Court of Appeal judges quashed his conviction a second time, in 2023.
He then spent 18 months on bail before Supreme Court judges restored his conviction in April this year.
Lawyers representing Layden told the Court of Appeal in April that his time spent on bail should be deducted from the overall sentence.
They said that if this time is taken into account, he would have served almost the whole of his minimum term and be eligible for parole.
But Lord Justice Jeremy Baker, sitting with Lord Justice Holgate, refused the appeal, saying that Layden's time spent outside prison is likely to be "of considerable value" in persuading the Parole Board that he is no longer a danger to the public.
In a judgment on Friday, Lord Justice Jeremy Baker said: "The fact of the matter is that, following his conviction for murder, the applicant has been at liberty for a period of about 18 months, albeit subject to an electronic curfew, when he would otherwise have remained in custody.
"Although we recognise that, since the restoration of his conviction for murder, this has put back the date of his eligibility for parole, given the effect of a sentence of imprisonment for life, there could be no assumption that the applicant would have been released on the earlier date or at all."