Introduction
1.This case is concerned with the murder of a vulnerable homeless man named Jamie Dack. All four of the appellants before the court admitted or were convicted of his murder. Nicholls pleaded guilty in November 2012 during the course of the first trial. His plea led to the discharge of the jury against the other three appellants. A fresh trial took place at Winchester Crown Court between April and June 2013. At that retrial the other three appellants were convicted by the jury. 2.Both Donna Chalk and Andrew Dwyer-Skeats now pursue renewed applications for leave to appeal against their convictions for murder after a refusal by the single judge. Neither Nicholls nor Woodmansey challenges his conviction. 3.In addition to the count of murder, each of the accused faced a charge of perverting the course of public justice. Each pleaded guilty at some stage. Woodmansey pleaded guilty on initial arraignment. Dwyer-Skeats and Nicholls pleaded guilty at the outset of the first trial and Chalk pleaded guilty some way through that trial. 4.All accused were sentenced to life imprisonment for the offence of murder. The minimum terms specified by the judge were: 34 years in Nicholls’ case; 32 years in Dwyer-Skeats’ case; 30 years in Woodmansey’s case; and 25 years in Chalk’s case. The single judge has granted each appellant leave to appeal against those minimum terms. The judge also passed concurrent 4 year sentences on each offender in relation to the count of perverting the course of public justice. Those 4 year terms were to run concurrently to the sentence imposed for murder. 5.There are two technical matters which have been drawn to our attention. Firstly, Victim Surcharge Orders were made unlawfully. The court quashes the Orders in each case. Secondly, the judge failed to deal with the question of periods of time spent by each accused on remand in custody. Those should have been ordered to count against the minimum terms specified since such time is not automatically deducted from the minimum term. Section 240ZA of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 does not apply directly to sentences of life imprisonment. We shall deal with this later.