Southport killer Axel Rudakubana to be sentenced for attacks

Daniel Sandford
Internal Affairs Correspondent

Sometimes people convicted of the most serious murders receive what is called a life sentence. It is a life sentence, with an order that the murderer should never be released from prison.

Two reasons given by judges for imposing a life sentence are “the murder of a child involving a substantial degree of premeditation or planning” and “the murder of two or more people involving a substantial degree of planning.”

For these reasons, Axel Rudakubana’s horrific crimes – the murder of three girls under the age of 10 – and the attempted murder of eight other girls and two adults, all planned, would almost certainly merit a life sentence. .

But under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, a life sentence can only be imposed on a person aged 18 or over at the time they were convicted. committed the crime.

Even then, a person under 21 can only be handed over to someone who was under 21 at the time they committed the offense when “the seriousness of the offense is exceptionally high.”

Rudakubana, who was 17 when he committed the murders, will therefore face a life sentence with a “minimum term” before he can be released on license by the Parole Board. Its minimum duration will probably be measured in decades, but the case is so unusual that it is difficult to predict.

Previously, no one under the age of 21 could receive a life sentence.

But when Hashem Abedi, the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 55 years, the judge said a life sentence “would have been the right sentence in this case , taking into account the exceptional seriousness of his offense”. , including the young age of many of the intended targets and the large number of people killed and very seriously injured.”

This led to the law being changed in 2022, reducing the minimum age to 18.

Axel Rudakubana missed it by nine days. He committed these crimes at the age of 17, on July 29 last year, and turned 18 on August 7.