Two boys believed to be Britain’s youngest knife murderers have had the minimum terms of their life sentences for the killing of Shawn Seesahai increased at the Court of Appeal.
The defendants, both 13, were given life sentences with minimum terms of eight-and-a-half years for the murder of Mr Seesahai, 19, in Wolverhampton on November 13 last year.
They were aged 12 at the time of the killing and became the youngest defendants convicted of the crime in the UK since Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both aged 11, were found guilty in 1993 of murdering two-year-old James Bulger.
On Thursday, lawyers for the Solicitor General said the sentences of both boys were “unduly lenient” and should be increased, stating it was a “particularly serious type of case”.
Three senior judges ruled that the minimum terms should be increased to 10 years, meaning the youths will spend nine years and 60 days behind bars because of time already served.
Lord Justice William Davis, sitting with Mr Justice Bennathan and Judge Nicholas Dean KC, said: “We have, with some reluctance and sadness, come to the conclusion that the minimum terms imposed by Mrs Justice Tipples were unduly lenient.”
The judge said that full written reasons for their decision would come at a later date.