The child who confessed should get a reduced sentence?

Then no real incentive to confess. Even if the evidence is overwhelming. That would lead to victims' families being dragged through the ordeal of a contested trial, unnecessarily. It might also lead to some crimes being unsolved because there is no incentive to inform.

Not a good idea.

All the killers need a full sentence! They were man enough to arm themselves with a machete and go out hunting, ultimately ending the lives of two innocent children in the most horrific of circumstances.

Prison sentences in this country are woeful !

YABVU

Those poor boys who were murdered were terrified I imagine

Very odd wording in the OP.

The murdered victims are referred to as 'young men' but the youngest murderer is referred to as a child despite being the same age as his victims.

No, he does not deserve a shorter sentence for taking legal advice to confess. That doesn't take away from the crime.

Deranged, sick, evil scumbags who could hack two children to death and then go and enjoy a McDonalds should not be among society so hopefully they'll all be locked up for many years.

Good spot. And I don’t know what exact age they all were at the time of the crime but currently one of the convicted is a 45 year old man and another is 18.

ETA: The only thing is I wonder could this 45 year old have coerced the youngest into participating? ALL of them should still he punished severely btw but I’m just thinking there must have been a power imbalance and we don’t know his background etc very weird that a man that age was running around with teens. I hope he never gets out of jail!

Two young men were killed in Bristol in a case of mistaken identity

Oh well, that makes it all right, then.

FGS stop trying to minimise this.

OP is strangely quiet…..

It must be terrifying for him.

Really, sympathy for him after what he took part in? He went out with the intention to take lives! I bet the guys they killed were also terrified

They were not young men. They were children. Boys. 15 and 16. They had done absolutely nothing to harm these people and died in terrifying circumstances.

That postcode war culture has to stop.

This is a horrific story. I don’t know whether his sentence will be reduced or not - I think it will as a result of pleading guilty but I personally think even though they’re teens the behaviour was still bloodthirsty and unhinged. They should be in jail for the rest of their lives or close to it . It would be different if it was a no-weapons fight and things had got out of hand and someone had got killed accidentally by a punch for example. But this going out with machetes shows they had a real thirst for murder and were hellbent on taking two fellow kids lives. In reality they’ll be out in 5-15 years due to their age.

They should lock them up and throw away the key. Unfortunately, they won't and these boys will be back on the streets in a few years time looking for another victim.

Are you related to this juvenile murderer, @ElatedShark?

@ElatedShark
Yes OP, why did you call the innocent victims “young men” but the murderer in question, who is the same age as them, a “child”?

I think he should never see the outside world again.

I think he should be given less time than the others due to this and age and the fact prison rarely works to rehabilitate young offenders. It must be terrifying for him.

He'll likely be out in less than 20 years, regardless. By which point he'll only be mid 30s. So a person who thought that a proportionate response to throwing bricks at a house (which the victims hadn't even done anyway) is to chase after them in a gang and machete them to death - that person will be out roaming the streets again as a comparatively young person.

I'm more fearful for his next potential victim(s) than I am for his possible apprehension at spending a few years in the chokey.

The whole thread feels very manipulative.

They killed someone, the mistaken identity aspect is completely irrelevant as they set out with the intention of killing someone.

They absolutely don't deserve any leniency for their actions just because they admitted to it!

He is scum- he wasn’t terrified when he went out to eat after the crime. He went out to kill these boys. He deserves a harsh sentence.

They should all get life sentences. Old enough to take someones life, old enough to face the consequences. He gave not two shits about what he'd done clearly, why the hell should he have a reduced sentence?! What sort of world do you live in?!

Life sentences for murder shouldn't be reduced. The kids he murdered don't get to live their lives, neither should he.

Yes.
Op called the murdered boys young men and their killer a child.

It feels very manipulative.

They were mid teen children who were killed, not young men. 15 & 16 iirc.

Did he? Fucking hell

It must be terrifying for him

He wasn't terrified when he went for a McDonald's after murdering those innocent boys.

Can you rehabilitate someone who did something like that?

I almost always argue for rehabilitation instead of prison, but sexual predator/rapists/pedophiles and cold blooded murderers are the categories I would consider behind rehab. These boys, and the adult male, are all cold blooded murderers. This wasn’t self defence or heat of the moment or accidentally. This was planned, they armed themselves, they hacked those boys to death and then went off for a McDonald’s.

This.

I'll agree prison rarely works in terms of rehabilitation, but I don't think anyone can suggest "he gets less time in prison because of his age" when he went out, equipped with a machete, intending to hack someone to death.

Clearly, so much has gone wrong with his upbringing already.