Calls for 'cowardly' criminals like Sheffield murderer Jermaine Richards to be forced to attend court

However, offenders can refuse to leave their prison cell, meaning that judges are force to pass sentence in a defendant’s absence, and those affected by their crimes are deprived of the closure that can come with facing the individual responsible in court.

Jermaine Richards, aged 31, of Wordsworth Drive, Parson Cross, Sheffield, was given two opportunities to attend Sheffield Crown Court to be sentenced for the murder of David Ford, and serious assault upon Mr Ford’s son, Ryan, but declined to attend on both occasions.

The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, adjourned Richards’ first sentencing hearing and urged him to ‘reflect,’ adjourning the passing of sentence until Monday, April 24, 2023.

When Richards once again refused to attend court, Judge Richardson branded the decision ‘an act of cowardice’ and sentenced him to life imprisonment, to serve a minimum of 26 years, in his absence.

Richards, who was found guilty of murder and an additional charge of wounding with intent following a trial at Sheffield Crown Court, is just one of a series of killers who have refused to come to court to be sentenced, prompting renewed calls for a change in the law that would see defendants being forced to attend their own sentencing hearing.

Earlier this month, on April 3, 2023, Thomas Cashman, the callous killer of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, who was shot dead at her family home in Liverpool in August 2022, declined to attend his sentencing hearing.

Mrs Justice Amanda Yip sentenced Cashman, aged 34, to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 42 years, and said she regarded his decision to avoid facing Olivia’s family in court as ‘disrespectful,' adding that it was clear he had not demonstrated ‘any remorse’.

Similarly, Jordan McSweeney - the man responsible for murdering 35-year-old law graduate Zara Aleena as she walked home in Ilford, Essex in July 2022 – refused to attend court to be sentenced in December 2022, and was sentenced to a minimum term of 38 years for her murder in his absence.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said the sentencing should go ahead in his absence, saying Ms Aleena’s family, who were present, should not have to wait any longer.

Speaking to the BBC earlier this month, Farah Naz, Ms Aleena’s aunt, called on the then-Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, to speed up Government plans to force criminals to attend their sentencing hearings, and to give judges the power to punish those who choose not to.

She said: “It's the last bit of power that needs to be taken away [from offenders].

“I think there are other ways to make the convict come to face their judgment and that would be to add time to their sentencing, or there can be other ways.”

“Otherwise we don't have people deterred from committing crimes - if they're just moving from cell to cell there's no sense of punishment.”

In addition, in a poll conducted by Redfield and Wilton, for The Mirror newspaper published on April 23, 2023, 78 per cent of those surveyed said they were in favour of convicted criminals being forced to physically attend their sentencing hearing.