Two boys, believed to be Britain’s youngest knife murderers after killing a 19-year-old man with a machete when they were 12, have had their sentences increased to a 10-year-minimum prison term at the court of appeal.
The boys, now aged 13, were initially given life sentences with minimum terms of eight and a half years for the murder of Shawn Seesahai in Wolverhampton in 2023.
Seesahai was stabbed through the heart and lungs and sustained a skull fracture when he was attacked during a minor dispute over a bench on playing fields in East Park. One of the wounds almost passed right through his body.
Both boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded not guilty to murder and blamed the other for inflicting the fatal machete wounds.
They are believed to be the youngest defendants convicted of murder in the UK since Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were found guilty in 1993 of killing two-year-old James Bulger when they were 10 years old.
The attorney general’s office confirmed in November that it had referred the sentences to the court of appeal, claiming they were “unduly lenient”.
More details soon …