The child who confessed should get a reduced sentence?

He's a scum bag.
Are you his mum or something?

One of the hold ups was the way the perpetrators had confessed to only one killing or the other.

it took 19 hours to agree they should all, rightly, be charged with both murders.

Also, I'm interested to know why it took the jury nearly 19 hours to reach a verdict. Either they were being held up by one or more very obtuse jurors, or the evidence wasn't as clear as we think. If the second, then it's even more crucial that they had the confession of one of the murderers to support the prosecution. As I said upthread, a reduced sentence in return for giving evidence against your co-defendants is just a way to secure a conviction, not to reward a guilty plea for its own sake.

Some people are born without a moral conscience- They just don't care for other's lives.

If that was your child, would you still think the same just because one of them confessed?!

sorry to hear that 😣💐 it must be awful for everyone especially their family and friends of course. I can only imagine just how many people are affected by this brutal act of violent cowardice.

What happened to kids having a punch up one on one, to settle disagreements?

Not saying I’m for any kind of fighting/violence of course but at least that was better than gangs bringing machetes to attack people.

I’m very liberal. I can see the societal causes of crimes like these, the problems with deprivation and poor parenting, rife drug use and lack of aspirations. I’m aware many of these kids are essentially groomed by older criminals.

None of that means I want a 14 year old capable of hacking another child to death with a machete loose on the streets. He needs to be locked up until we are very confident he won’t do it again, which is likely to be his mid 30s at absolute minimum.

He admitted to setting out to kill someone with a machete, not to accidentally spilling coffee over someone's laptop. And he probably confessed with the knowledge it would likely get him a reduced sentence, not out of the goodness of his heart. He may well be terrified but his victims were also terrified. The victim's families are going to spend the rest of their lives without them.

I knew both those children. I taught them both.

This crime has ripped apart families and an entire community.

I don’t think posts pleading for the perpetrators are helpful right now. It’s been a horrendous time for everyone involved.

Some people are beyond rehabilitation.

I don't think anyone is beyond rehabilitation, but I think the English justice system does not effectively rehabilitate many people, possibly anyone. If there are ways to rehabilitate serious violent criminals, they're not what we're currently doing.

I do think there are other reasons why a long prison sentence is appropriate here, but it won't deliver rehabilitation.

Fuck him. I'd be OK with them hanging the monster.

I think the end of the article is what actually shocked me the most:

Hours after the attack, one of the teenagers was caught on CCTV returning to a property in Hartcliffe carrying a McDonald’s meal.

“Chillingly for me, what we do know is they even stopped off at McDonald's after attacking those two boys,” Det Supt Haskins said.

“I think it speaks volumes really. Two beautiful boys lost their lives, and they went to McDonald's for an early morning breakfast.”

I think the older adult should face a very heavy penalty indeed. He drove the others to the murder scene and he absolutely could have stopped it by refusing to drive them. He literally could have prevented it happening and did not.

As others have pointed out calling the victims "young men" is a misnomer - at 15 and 16 they were children.

Describing the perpetrator that confessed as "the youngest child" is an emotive phrase that is also misleading - he was also 15 - an age you describe as a 'young man' when related to the victims.

And to say that the victims were killed "in a case of mistaken identity" whilst not incorrect does rather smack of "well, they didn't mean to kill those particular boys" 🙄

We have to question why children (and legally 4 of the 5 convicted are children) commit such violent and abhorrent acts. What is their background? What abuse/neglect, poor parenting, poor education and/or social deprivation have they experienced? Have there been failings in any of these areas? We have to know this, not to excuse these children, but to learn from it and prevent a tragedy like this happening again.

That really is shocking. Maybe trying to be the ''big man'' to the younger ones? No sense. It's a senseless, awful crime.

33 seconds.

That's how long it took for these teenagers to murder the other teenagers.

Yes he should be given less time, as that is standard practice in most criminal cases for good reason - as an incentive to spare the family the stress of a trial (not to mention public costs). If they had all confessed without the need for a full trial it would have saved the public purse hundreds of thousands of pounds, and the family a lot of grief.

But solely for confessing, nothing else.

Otherwise they should all still get the maximum time possible
Even if killing those boys was a mistake, they still went out intending to kill (or at least seriously injure) other boys of a similar age.

The liberals will be along in 3,2,1 making excuses for them.

Some people are beyond rehabilitation.

To have the capacity to murder others at that age is deeply concerning.

From the BBC article

"...the four younger defendants were all armed "

He has been found guilty of murder. The automatic sentence for this is life imprisonment. The only question is what is the minimum tariff to be served before he becomes eligible for parole.

Considering his age and his guilty plea I could imagine his minimum tariff could be anywhere from ten to fifteen years.

For example, just recently, two boys who were aged 12 at the time they committed the murder were sentenced to a minimum of eight years and six months for a fatal machete attack on a man in a park.

video of the sentencing remarks:

and sentencing remarks in full:

R -v- BGI and CMB (sentencing remarks parts 1 and 2)

Then there is also the very recent case of a 17 year old boy who murdered his ex-girlfriend with a knife and attacked a teenager that tried to come to her rescue. He was given a minimum tariff of 17 years.

full sentencing remarks here:

https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/r-v-logan-macphail/

In my opinion, rehabilitating people like this is a waste of resources. Sure, they could turn their lives around, but are they worth it? 15/16-year-olds who are fine with brutally murdering people are not people I am particularly interested in investing time and money in.

Given he went with a machete it’s not going to be much is it! Being tooled up with such a weapon will mean an increase in sentence

That horrified me

Agree- zero excuse. The innocent young victims must have been terrified.
A machete was used .

An appalling case.

Back in the summer, I visited Bristol, and took dogs for a walk on a green space there {Urban}

I saw a gang of teens bullying badly a single lad, calling him a ''Fucking Meeder''

over and over.

I shouted out ''OI!'' - I definitely kept my eye and ear on them {It was dusk} in case I needed to call the police/ambulance if they attacked him.

Mentioned this to the person I was visiting they said ''Meader'' = from Southmead. - eg, kid was out of area [?]

Very sad.

As they have been convicted of murder, they will all be given life sentences. The only discretion open to the judge is in setting the minimum term before they can be considered for release. The minimum term for the adult is likely to be higher than for the teenagers, and the teenager who pleaded guilty to one of the murders is likely to get a reduction for doing so.