Stephen Yaxley-Lennon v HM Solicitors General and Jamal Hijazi [2025] EWCA 476

Ø   Sentencing principles in cases of contempt by breach of injunctions.

Contempt is not a criminal offence, but the court will be guided, on sentencing, by the principles applicable to sentencing in criminal cases.
For multiple breaches of an injunction, the correct approach is to consider a sanction for all the breaches together rather than separately, that is just and proportionate in all the circumstances.
The court will consider culpability, harm, aggravating factors and mitigating factors. An admission may reduce the seriousness of the sanction. Adverse prison conditions, live being overcrowded, are a mitigating factor. A sentencing judge need not attribute specific percentage values to aggravating and mitigating factors. A sentence judge need not, and should not, take into account the release provisions and the difference between the release provisions in civil and criminal cases.
A custodial sentence may be divided into punitive and coercive elements. The coercive part of a custodial sentence may be remitted if the contemnor purges his contempt, for example, by subsequently complying with the injunction.
The appropriate custodial sentence may be reduced by the time the contemnor has already spent in custody prior to the judgment.