Member

Those awful cases seem to be run of the mill now. Since then, the ages of our killers have dropped considerably and the viciousness of the killings has increased exponentially. As the Committee will know, Damilola Taylor was only 10 when he was murdered by two brothers aged 12 and 13. Last year, two 15 year-olds lured a transgender person to a remote spot in Warrington and stabbed the person 28 times in the back, neck and head with a hunting knife in what the court was told was a “frenzied and ferocious” murder that they had planned for weeks. Just last month, three girls aged 14, 16 and 17 were convicted of manslaughter after a vicious and unprovoked attack on a 75 year-old pensioner waiting at a bus stop, who died of his injuries the next day. For their sentences, one got two years and six months, another got three years and six months, and the third got four years. Of course, they will be out in just over half the time. I think that makes rather a mockery of the concept of punishment.