Mum freed from jail to give birth
A YOUNG mum who was locked up after she was involved in a nightclub brawl which left a man dead has been freed from prison - so she can give birth to her second child.
Storm Robyn Downer, 22, from Wythenshawe, was part of a group jailed after a night at Manchester’s Suburbia club last September descended into chaos. A fight erupted after a fire alarm went off and staff turned on the lights and asked clubbers to leave the venue.
Bottles and glasses were thrown, furniture was used to attack people and two men were stabbed, including the fatal wounding of Jordan Ross.
Downer, of New Hay Road, Wythenshawe, was seen pushing a person, swinging her stiletto shoes above her head and hurling them into the crowd.
The mother-of-one pleaded guilty to violent disorder and was jailed for 21 months at Manchester Crown Court in April, this year. But on Thursday, after being told she is due to give birth to her second child within days, top judges ordered her release.
“The appellant is due to give birth to her second child in three days’ time,” Mrs Justice Nicola Davies told the Court of Appeal in London.
“We accept she has significant caring responsibilities for her mother, her young son and her grandmother.
“Those responsibilities will increase with the birth of her second child.”
The court heard Downer had not been carrying her shoes deliberately to use as a weapon, but because her feet were hurting after a long night out.
She had no previous convictions and had herself been pushed with ‘quite some force’ earlier during the incident.
Her lawyers argued the imminent birth and the fact she is carer to her three-year-old and her mother justified ‘mercy.’
Ruling on the case, Mrs Justice Davies said Downer had shown ‘remorse, shame and genuine victim awareness.’
There was also a ‘realistic prospect of rehabilitation,’ she continued.
“The letters from her mother and grandmother attest to her remorse and shame,” she said.
“A letter from the prison states that she has been exemplary in her conduct.”
The judge, sitting with Lord Justice Hamblen and Judge Martyn Zeidman QC, cut the sentence to 16 months and suspended it for 18 months.
Lord Justice Hamblen said the decision meant Downer could be freed.