The child who confessed should get a reduced sentence?

[ElatedShark]

Two young men were killed in Bristol in a case of mistaken identity. 5 killers caught, only one, the youngest child, confessed.

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.

My heart also goes out to the victims families.
Partner thinks I'm being unreasonable. That's it really.

Here is the story for those wanting more info:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5ym7g5dx50o

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3969807/

I always remember this study and think if you can just keep this 1% of criminals permanently locked up you could massively reduce violent crime.

Thoughts with the victims and their families.

I do think you have to come from a pretty fucked up background to be out on the street at 14 with a machete looking to kill somebody. I don’t know how you get there but ot’s awful.

They are ALL callous killers. They had zero remorse (went for a McDonalds afterwards). I do not care how old any of them are. Lock them all away until they reach the age of 75. No chance of parole.

Life should mean life. This wasn’t an accident.

I’m absolutely astounded to read that the adult of the group is a man in his 40s. Driving the teens around hellbent on attacking someone. WTF.

The boys may not have been the intended victims but they were not murdered accidentally.

No sympathy at all for the boy who confessed. He wasn’t an innocent bystander, he had a machete. His fear will never match that of the poor boys who were brutally murdered.

On the news he was seen saying he had been abused and just sat in the car.
child killing bastard

They have not been sentenced yet, the sentencing reports will be being prepared now and yes, sometimes a guilty plea does result in a reduced sentence, it depends on when the guilty plea is entered, then there will be the age of this offender to be considered and other factors that we don't know about, The judge imposing the sentences will comment during the sentencing hearing to give context to their decisions

Interestingly, though, when people come in here to ask a question about "I am/my DC is in court on Friday", everyone rushes to offer empathy.

I've never seen anyone post on Mumsnet saying they're in court on a murder charge...

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.

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.

That horrified me

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

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.

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/

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.

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.

33 seconds.

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

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

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.

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" 🙄

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.

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.”

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

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.

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.