Chief Constable of Northumbria Police v Tanya Louise Liddle

1. As you know there are a series of allegations that you have breached this Injunction Order. You have confirmed to me that you accept that they are all true. The first of those was on 30 September and there are incidents on 22 and 23 November that involved entering Rutherfords, then John Lewis and Hotel Chocolat. On each of those occasions entering those stores at all is a breach of the Civil Injunction Order that has been made against you. That amounts to a contempt of court.

2. When you are punished by this Court it is not a criminal offence it is an offence of breaching the court order and thereby committing a contempt of court. In relation to those three offences I am told both by Miss Thompson for the police and by Mr Cousins representing you, that you have in fact been sentenced by the Criminal Courts already for those incidents under the criminal law and had some time in custody for each of them.

3. Because of that, although these are also breaches of the civil injunction and you have accepted those breaches today, I am not going to add any sentence for those breaches because you have already, in my judgment, been punished adequately by the criminal law, so I am not going to impose a sentence for those matters.

4. You also have a 42 day suspended sentence from this Court. You were last before this Court on 14 July. DJ Temple gave you a 42 day suspended sentence for breaches you accepted on that occasion. I am told that for those same incidents you also received a 6 week suspended sentence by the Criminal Courts. That has been activated by the criminal Courts, so you have served that sentence.

5. I am not going to activate DJ Temple’s suspended sentence for that last breach and because in my judgment you have already been punished adequately by the criminal law for circumstances that led to that suspended sentence.

6. That leaves me with the breach which you have accepted, which took place on 20 November that you went into Morrisons in Byker, were there for a few minutes before staff asked you to leave and you did so I also need to deal with a series of incidents yesterday in a number of shops, four different shops in Kingston Park, namely Marks & Spencer, Boots, Poundland and Card Factory.

7. The witness statements indicate that in some of those premises you were found to be in possession of items that were either taken from you or you left them at the store. In others there is no indication that you had taken items but you were asked to leave the store or left it.

8. I have heard what has been said on your behalf by Mr Cousins about all that.

9. I have heard what you said about the difficult personal circumstances you find yourself in, that you have been sleeping on a friend’s sofa since being released, you have had a longstanding drug problem, been badly affected by a relationship by your partner sadly dying, then his mother, who I am told provided you with some support, also sadly dying. But you find yourself in a position in which, having been released from custody for criminal matters, you are back before this Court for admitted breaches of injunction within less than a week.

10. I take note of the fact that you have been sentenced by this Court on a number of occasions for breaching this order, including some quite lengthy sentences. I imposed a 5 month sentence in October 2024. In January 2025, you cannot have been out of custody very long, by the time the matter was dealt with in January and I am told you had a 6 month sentence. You served a part of that sentence. You were then before Judge Temple again on 1 May 2025, and a 20 week sentence was imposed on 14 July 2025.

11. I am told you were also dealt with for criminal matters in September and again in November then only released less than a week ago.

12. I have to have regard to the fact that there is a pattern in which you are not paying any real attention to the court order that says you are not to go into any store beyond the three specific ones that are named. Part of the purpose of sentencing is to try to secure future compliance with that order.

13. What often happens if somebody continues to breach an order time and time again is that sentences get progressively more severe.

14. I have regard to the Civil Justice Council’s suggested Sentencing Guidelines which have been approved by the Court of Appeal for use in such cases as these. Miss Thompson invites me to find that this is in the worst category of culpability because you have knowingly or wilfully breached this order repeatedly, on four occasions within a week of being released in addition to the previous occasion in November at Morrisons.

15. I have to have consideration to the extent of harm caused and I think both Miss Thompson and Mr Cousins accept that for the 15 January incidents I should view that as being in the middle category of harm, and I accept that. So far as the incident on 20 November is concerned I accept that the harm category was lower, that that would be the lowest category or harm.

16. I give you full credit for having made these admissions at the earliest possible opportunity, so any sentence I am going to impose I am going to discount it by a third to reflect those early admissions.

17. Having regard to the incidents as a whole and having regard to the fact there were four different shops that you entered against the background of several previous breaches, my starting point is a custodial sentence of 6 months.

18. I am going to reduce that by a third, by 2 months, because of those early admissions and calculated in days and rounding those down that gives a total of 120 days. As you have already had one day in custody already I will reduce that to 119. Now you are likely to serve around half of that sentence before you are released. I will note that 119 days is before any early release under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, or otherwise.

19. I appreciate Ms Liddle that you find yourself in a very difficult situation in your life. However, the Court makes an order for a reason and that order is that you are not to go into any stores except the three that you are permitted to enter by the Injunction Order and the more you go on ignoring that court order and entering stores, the more likely it is that you will get increasingly lengthy sentences from this Court. I hope that you will be able to use a slightly extended time in custody to access some further support to help you.

20. I hope that is going to be made available to you and I hope that we not just going to be back in the same position again in a few months’ time. I am not going to add any additional penalty for that breach on 20 November. Considering the breaches as a whole I am satisfied the sentence I have given you for the 15 January breaches is adequate punishment for those breaches as a whole. I am not going to give any separate sentence for that breach in November. This Transcript has been approved by the Judge. The Transcription Agency hereby certifies that the above is an accurate and complete recording of the proceedings or part thereof. The Transcription Agency, 24-28 High Street, Hythe, Kent, CT21 5AT Tel: 01303 230038 Email: [email protected]