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

I suppose it may have been complicated by the 40 yo man who was charged with murder but, from the description of events, doesn't sound like he could have struck the lethal blows.

I'm not suggesting that he doesn't deserve the murder charge but it probably takes longer for a jury to arrive to that conclusion.

Nothing good comes from roaming the streets at 11pm at night - at any age. Keep your kids in. There's absolute scumbags out there. Horrific.

Life means life. He'll never be 'free'. He'll only be considered for release at the time determined by the judge. If he still presents a danger to society (and let's face it, it's likely), then parole won't be granted. Even if he is released, he will be subject to conditions and if he breaches them, or is thought to be a danger to the public, even if he doesn't commit an offence, he'll be recalled to prison.

I think you're completely unreasonable to call the 15 and 16 year old innocent victims "young men" when you call the 15 year old cold blooded machete wielding killer a "child".
Nice try OP.

Pretty much everyone is doing a shitty job of reporting or discussing this with any semblance of objectivity or nuance.

Five people were convicted of murdering two people.

One adult male and four teenage males were convicted of murdering two teenage males.

Two adult men and three teenage boys were convicted of murdering two teenage boys.

An adult male 45, a teenage adult male 18, and three teenage boys 17, 16, 15 were convicted of murdering two teenage boys age 16 and 15.

It is the youngest boy 15, who confessed to murdering the 15 year old boy, but denied killing the 16 year old boy.

Those calling for the most extreme penalties for three teenage boys who murdered two teenage boys, without any attention to power structures, deprivation, indoctrination, or the epidemic of shit parenting in an ever more unequal society, well, they are simply indulging their own monstrous tendencies, from an armchair.

I doubt the concept of prison is more terrifying for him than being stabbed to death in the street was for those poor children he killed.

He likely will get a reduced sentence if he pled guilty at an early opportunity. It’s for the judge to decide. Regardless, there is no punishment adequate to account for the horrors he committed.

For some crimes there is no genuine possibility of rehabilitation, why on earth should the public bear the burden of a risk like that?

This post is disgraceful

Send their parents to prison too!

Absolutely agree. I've been saying this for years

This case really upset me. Two young lads, not much older than my own, murdered just like that. Their lives snuffed out because of a bunch of vengeful psychopaths. I can't imagine what their families are going through and my heart goes out to them. Regardless if the youngest perpetrator gets a lesser sentence, he's young enough that he will be able to restart his life at some point and experience all the things those two lads are going to miss. Sickening.

Many would agree with you.
Complete waste of air.

Life in jail should mean life.
{being as Pierrepoint is no more re death penalty}

When they get out of jail, they are likely to end up battering their partners, their children , who will likely end up violent and dysfunctional- and will generally be a net loss to society.

The news article states that he only pleaded guilty to 1 murder not to both so I am not sure if the sentence would be reduced in this instance.

No, they should all get the maximum sentence.
If we want to actually stop all forms of male violence we need to hold both the boys/men and their parents to account. If the parents of males actually parented their sons in the same way girls are parented than this whole "boys will be boys" and "boys are easier to raise" nonsense would stop and the crime statistics would drop.

@Fairyliz 100% agree!

It's interesting that you refer to the completely innocent 15 and 16 year old victims as young men, and the youngest of the 5 people who stabbed and hacked them to death with 16-inch machetes (also 15) as a terrified child.

Where do they get these machetes from?

IMO.

The age that people (men) are, if disposed to violence, violent- is 13/4 to late 30s.

Keep the rest of us safe til these 'children' are 40, minimum.

No. I grew up in poverty and deprivation with a drug addicted father who was often in prison and a mother with severe depression who couldn't even get out of bed at times. I did not go out killing people with machetes. I hate when "deprivation" is blamed for this sort of thing, it's a scapegoat.

OP is clearly related to the killer/s.

How do people even get machetes? They should be banned, anyone caught with one should go to jail, there is simply no need for such a weapon.

Hope all sentenced rot in jail for life.

Agreed. I hope none of the grieving families of the murder VICTIMS have to see people thinking anyone should get a nicer punishment.

So much this. Ridiculous thread.

Well said @Beezknees .
Lots of children grow up with addicted parents- one who saw their parent beaten by dealers, and all the squalor that goes along with it.. and they still become useful, functioning members of society.

But there are aways people who seek to excuse these monsters- because that is what they are.

No child with a conscience could murder another so callously.

The emotive use of the word 'child' on MN is crazy, it may fit a legal definition but if they can involve themselves in such horrifying murder they can take the consequences like an adult. Admitting their crime in the hope of getting a soppy judge who cares more about them than about their victims shouldn't work in their favour.

Do we know the economic background of the killers? Have their parents been identified and outed as being shit? Or are you working on the basis that middle class boys from nice, well off families couldn’t possibly do something like this?Because if that’s the case, and we’re talking about indulging monstrous tendencies from an armchair, I suggest you look a little closer to home.

They might be evil, or they might be broken, never having had parents who taught them empathy. Either way, it’s irrelevant. They did something unforgivable. They need to be punished and the public need to be protected from them, so they don’t decide that someone else needs to die because they looked at them sideways, or because they edged in front of them in the bus queue. What nobody needs is some dozy liberal, who would rather live in a tent than near a council estate, making excuses for them.

And I suppose it’s possible that the youngest has had an attack of conscience which has made him admit to killing a defenceless teenager. I’d be more inclined to think he had a lawyer who pointed out the evidence against him, told him he didn’t stand a chance of getting away with it and that he might get a lesser sentence if he admitted to it.