A VIOLENT and drug-affected criminal who stabbed a woman in Tamworth over a cab fare has had his jail sentence appeal dismissed.
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Leon Prince, who was 19 at the time of the offence, made an appeal on his two years and six month sentence on the basis the Tamworth judge at the time failed to take into account his "deprived" background and how that affected his responsibility for his actions.
The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal (CCA) was heard by three judges in a Sydney court who ruled against the appeal on the grounds Tamworth District Court Judge Jeffery McLennan had taken into account Prince's background as a whole.
"Ultimately, it is the application of proper principle, and not the use of appropriate labels, that matters," Judge Clifton Hoeben said in the appeal judgement.
The court heard that Prince was exposed to an unstable and problematic childhood, characterised by drug and alcohol misuse, violence and physical abuse.
He was separated from his parents at an early age, but a report tendered to the district court that was critical of Prince's mother, and to some extent his grandmother, made it difficult for Judge McLennan to discuss in his original sentencing hearing because both were seated in the court at the time.
Court documents show that when the problem was pointed out to Judge McLennan, he said that he would "skate around that".
Judge Hoeben argued a fair reading of the sentencing judgement reveals how Judge McLennan took Prince's background "as a whole" into his assessment of moral culpability.
Prince pleaded guilty to stabbing a woman in the hand and forearm after he rocked up to a block of units on Woodward Avenue in Tamworth at 3:49am on January 30, last year.
Police facts show that the taxi driver who took Prince to the apartments noted he was well-affected by drugs, and Prince told the driver that the people inside would pay for his fare.
Once Prince entered the home he started yelling at a man inside, "I want that $20. I want that money, I have a cab waiting out there".
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The woman inside asked him to leave several times, at which point he said: "I have four brothers, they will come here and go through your house - I will stab you, give me the money."
When Prince raised a sharp implement at the woman, both her and the male victim tried to push him out of the apartment and during the struggle he stabbed her in the hand - completely lacerating a nerve - and again in the upper arm.
Eventually Prince fled the unit, leaving a shoe behind.
About 4:05am the taxi driver waved down a police car and told them Prince hadn't returned to pay his fare.
The police went to the unit block where they heard screaming and glass being smashed and saw blood down the driveway of the premises which matched the DNA of Prince.
The appeal was dismissed and Prince was ordered to serve out the remainder of his sentence. He will be eligible for parole in February 2021.