The court heard that the covid pandemic had impacted the case
A tariff imposed upon a 37-year old man who murdered his partner was reduced by a senior judge today.
In June of this year, John David Scott was handed a minimum term of 19 years in prison for the murder of his 32-year old partner Natasha Melendez.
This term was reduced to 17 years and nine months at Belfast Crown Court today.
When he imposed the 19 year minimum tariff upon Scott for murdering his 32-year old partner Natasha Melendez in June, Mr Justice Weir said he had inflicted multiple injuries upon the mother-of-four in prior assaults before the final and fatal attack in March 2020.
This occurred in her Finch Gardens home in Lisburn where the senior judge said was a place she should have felt safe.
Following the fatal attack on March 22, 2020, Ms Melendez spend a period in hospital where she passed away on the morning of April 1, 2020.
Scott was arrested following the March 2020 attack and was remanded into custody for the assault. After Ms Melendez passed away, the charge was upgraded to murder.
This all occurred at the start of the Covid pandemic and as a result of HMP Maghaberry being in lockdown, police were not able to formally charge Scott with murder and he did not have access to his legal team until January 2022.
The issue of the interim period Scott spend on remand without time accruing for the murder charge between April 2020 and January 2022 was the basis of a hearing at today.
Confirming a solicitor was not able to talk to Scott until January 2022, defence barrister Sean Devine told Mr Justice O’Hara that prior to this taking place, “strident efforts” were made by his legal team to speak to Scott in Maghaberry.
Mr Devine revealed: “We did consider at one point bringing Judicial Review proceedings to try and compel it but because it was a global health emergency, we decided not to.”
He also told Mr Justice O’Hara that the period Scott spend in custody following the fatal attack in 2020 until he was formally charged with murder in January 2022 was over 650 days.
As a result, the defence asked that Scott’s murder tariff be reduced to reflect this. Saying Scott “should not be denied the right to have his time in custody from the first of April 2020 reflected in the actual sentence”, Mr Justice O’Hara agreed to reduce the 19-year tariff to 17 years and nine months.
When asked the Crown’s view, prosecuting barrister Ian Tannahill told Mr Justice O’Hara this was not being opposed. He added: “We were always of the view that the difficulties created with Covid were going to have to be reflected.”
After reducing the tariff, Mr Justice O’Hara said: “Just to re-assure the Melendez family and others, the reduction of the tariff from 19 years to 17 years and nine months does not in fact mean that he spends less time in custody.
“It just reflects the time he has spend in custody in a different way to the normal.”
Following the reduction, Mr Devine confirmed that an appeal against the tariff has been lodged with the Court of Appeal.
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