Notwithstanding the poor circumstances surrounding the first appellant's upbringing, the sentence of nine months' detention in a young offender institute could not be regarded as manifestly excessive and accordingly her application for permission to appeal against sentence was refused. The second appellant's sentence of 21 months' detention for the same offence was regarded as manifestly excessive and was substituted with a sentence of 15 months' detention.

CA (Crim Div) (Rose LJ, Jowitt J, Hooper J)

20/10/1999