Appeal fails – McCormick stays in jail for at least 25 years

Thursday 30 July 2015

Axe murderer Darren McCormick will be behind bars until at least 2040 after his appeal against his life sentence was rejected yesterday.

McCormick was jailed in January for the murder of Colin Chevalier last April after the Royal Court heard that he had attacked him with an axe while he was sleeping, before trying to cut off one of his hands, and slicing off one of his ears.

He had appealed against his sentence of life with a minimum of 25 years, arguing that the court had put too much weight on a previous conviction for a similar attack years before.

But the Court of Appeal rejected his lawyer’s argument, and ruled that the sentence should stand.

In their judgment delivered yesterday afternoon, the court said: “The 25-year minimum term was a just result, which was not manifestly excessive or wrong in principle.

“This was a horrifyingly brutal murder by a 35-year-old man on a defenceless victim, who was then mutilated.

“The grave and criminal assault in 2003, which the appellant’s counsel argued that the Royal Court had put too much emphasis on in setting the minimum term, was strikingly similar to the murder in 2014, and the Court was correct to consider it a significant aggravating factor. We have no objection to the approach the Bailiff took in his judgment.”

When McCormick was arrested after the killing of 46-year-old Mr Chevalier, he was found to be carrying his victim's right ear.

The attack took place in the early evening of 5 April last year at Mr Chevalier’s cottage in Duhamel Place. McCormick had arrived there – in the middle of what his lawyer called "a five-day bender" – and took Ethylphenidate, or “crystals”, while two other men were at the flat.

A toxicology report later showed that he was under the influence of alcohol and a mix of illegal and prescribed drugs.

The case was heard by Court of Appeal judges James McNeill QC, Nigel Pleming QC and David Perry QC.