Category Archives: Sentencing

Nottingham attacks: Valdo Calocane’s ‘unduly lenient’ sentence to be reviewed

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Attorney general Victoria Prentis asks court of appeal to review hospital order handed to Calocane, who killed three people

The families of the three people stabbed to death in the Nottingham attacks last year have welcomed a court of appeal review of the “unduly lenient” sentence of the perpetrator, Valdo Calocane.

The killer was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order last month for the attacks on university students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and a school caretaker, Ian Coates, 65, in the early hours of 13 June last year.

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Police were warned of offender safety fears before Nottingham killings

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An official report a year before three people were stabbed to death in the city raised concerns about the force’s management practices

Nottinghamshire police was ordered to review its management of offenders a year before a wanted man with paranoid schizophrenia stabbed three people to death.

A report by the official policing inspectorate in April 2022 said the force should “immediately review” their approach to managing low-risk offenders to ensure risk was “effectively monitored and managed”.

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Mother of stabbed Nottingham university student calls for inquiry

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Emma Webber describes ‘fury’ at sentence received by Valdo Calocane for deadly rampage last June

The mother of one of the students stabbed to death in Nottingham has called for an inquiry into any failings that led to the knife attacks.

Emma Webber told the Times that her family “fully support” calls for a public inquiry, which also has the backing of the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, into the killings of her son Barnaby Webber, fellow University of Nottingham student Grace O’Malley-Kumar and the 65-year-old school caretaker Ian Coates.

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Eight in 10 convicted in UK over child abuse images avoid prison, NCA says

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National Crime Agency calls for tougher sentencing and a new offence of running abuse websites

Eight out of 10 people in the UK caught with images of children being sexually abused avoid going to jail, the head of the National Crime Agency has revealed.

Graeme Biggar, the director general of the NCA, said some had been caught with thousands of images but avoided imprisonment, and others had been given rehabilitation orders and suspended sentences and then reoffended.

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Rishi Sunak’s king’s speech to include hardline criminal justice measures

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PM to announce tougher sentences for rapists and killers ahead of upcoming general election

Rishi Sunak’s first king’s speech will include a series of hardline criminal justice measures promising tougher sentences for rapists and killers in the run-up to a general election.

With crime and punishment a major point of contention with Keir Starmer’s Labour, the prime minister will confirm the introduction of a new sentencing bill under which murderers whose crimes involved sadistic or sexual conduct will face spending the rest of their lives in jail.

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UN highlights ‘psychological harm’ to UK man jailed since 2012 for phone theft

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Exclusive: Expert repeats call to review indefinite sentences such as Thomas White’s, whose family says now suffers from psychosis

A UN torture expert has called the case of a man driven to psychosis after being jailed in the UK for more than a decade for stealing a mobile phone “emblematic of the psychological harm” caused by indeterminate sentences.

Thomas White was handed an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence in 2012 for stealing a mobile phone – four months before such prison terms were abolished. He has been in jail ever since after initially receiving a minimum two-year tariff.

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Wrongly convicted in Britain no longer forced to pay ‘saved living costs’ in prison

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The government has scrapped controversial guidance over deductions to compensation in miscarriage of justice cases

People who have been wrongly convicted will no longer have to pay living expenses for the time they spent in prison, the government will announce on Sunday after widespread outrage over the case of Andrew Malkinson.

One of Britain’s longest-serving victims of a miscarriage of justice, Malkinson, 57, had his conviction overturned last month by the court of appeal after spending 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit.

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Dominic Raab to push for tougher minimum sentence in domestic homicides

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Move follows pressure from campaigners such as Julie Devey and Carole Gould whose daughters were murdered

Domestic abusers in England and Wales who kill their partners or ex-partners are to face tougher sentences under government plans after a campaign by bereaved families.

The justice secretary and lord chancellor, Dominic Raab, will push for a change in the law after pressure from campaigners such as Julie Devey and Carole Gould, who have been calling since 2020 for a change to the minimum sentence for domestic homicide.

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Serial cyberstalker Matthew Hardy has jail term cut

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Jail term reduced by a year owing to legal oversight in original sentencing at Chester crown court

The court of appeal has reduced the jail sentence of a serial cyberstalker who harassed women by creating fake social media accounts to spread fake claims about them.

Matthew Hardy, 31, was jailed for nine years last January at Chester crown court after pleading guilty to stalking involving fear of violence and harassment after breaching a restraining order.

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PC Andrew Harper’s killer should have had life sentence, court told

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Appeal judges hear sentencing for Henry Long, 19, and two accomplices unduly lenient

The leader of the group of teenagers who killed PC Andrew Harper should have been given a life sentence rather than the 16 years he received, while his accomplices should also have their jail terms increased from 13 years each, a court has heard.

The attorney general argued that the sentences handed to Henry Long, 19, and the 18-year-olds Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers were all unduly lenient, during a court of appeal hearing on Monday.

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Sentencing: minister rejects European human rights convention warning

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Matt Hancock’s comments come as UK seeks tougher sentencing for terrorists

A senior government minister has raised further questions over Britain’s relationship with the European convention on human rights (ECHR) as Boris Johnson scrambles to push through tougher sentencing for terrorists.

Legal experts have suggested the government’s intended plan to extend the time terrorists serve in prison could be in breach of the ECHR, to which Britain has been signed up for decades.

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London Bridge victim’s father accuses Johnson of capitalising on death

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Dave Merritt criticises PM for seeing terrorist attack as opportunity instead of tragedy

The father of Jack Merritt, who was murdered in the London Bridge terrorist attack last month, has directly criticised the prime minister for treating his son’s death as a political “opportunity”.

As Boris Johnson sought on Tuesday to get his general election campaign back on track, Dave Merritt accused him of seeking to capitalise on his son’s murder.

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