Murderers whose offences have a sexual motivation face spending the whole of their lives behind bars – with no chance of being released – under plans announced by the government on Saturday.
Ministers plan to expand the use of the rare whole-life term, the sentence given to the child serial killer Lucy Letby, so it can be handed down to more of the most serious offenders.
Under the proposal, the Ministry of Justice said the law would be changed to place an expectation on judges that they take a whole-life order as their starting point in the worst cases – choosing not to impose one in exceptional circumstances. Ministers said they believed changing the law in that way would mean less chance of such orders being overturned on appeal.
The whole-life order is the most severe penalty available in the country’s criminal justice system. It is usually reserved for serial killers, or those whose crimes include an unusual aggravating feature – such as abusing a position of power to commit murder.
The order, which creates the expectation that an offender will only be considered for release on the most exceptional of compassionate grounds, differs from a life sentence, which also exists for life – but has the possibility of parole after its minimum term in custody has been served.
Downing Street said the expanded power it proposed could have been used in the recent murder cases of Zara Aleena and Sabina Nessa, had they brought it in earlier. Jordan McSweeney was jailed for life with a minimum term of 38 years for murdering law graduate Aleena as she walked home in east London, while Koci Selamaj was jailed for at least 36 years for murdering primary-school teacher Nessa in south-east London.
Rishi Sunak said: “I have shared the public’s horror at the cruelty of crimes we have seen recently. People rightly expect that, in the most serious cases, there should be a guarantee that life will mean life. They expect honesty in sentencing.
“By bringing in mandatory whole-life orders for the heinous criminals who commit the most horrific types of murder, we will make sure they never walk free.”
The justice secretary, Alex Chalk, said: “A whole-life order will now be the expectation for murderers where the killing involves sexual or sadistic conduct. This important law change will ensure that the worst of the worst can now expect to spend the rest of their lives in prison.”
No 10 said the government would legislate for the changes “in due course”.
But Labour, which is pitching itself as a “tough-on-crime” party as it prepares for the next general election, accused Sunak’s Conservative government of falling short. The shadow justice secretary, Steve Reed, said: “No one will take any lessons from this soft-on-crime Tory government.
“Under their watch, nine out of 10 crimes go unsolved and tens of thousands of dangerous criminals including gunmen, child abductors and sex offenders have avoided jail sentences.
“To make matters worse, our prisons are now full because they failed to build the prison cells we need, forcing judges to hand out softer sentences.
“Labour is the party of law and order. In government, we will implement tougher sentences for dangerous criminals and build the prison places to put them behind bars.”
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Letby was sentenced to a whole-life term on Monday for the murder of seven babies and the attempted murders of six more.
The nurse joins a string of the country’s most dangerous offenders who are likely to die behind bars, including Sarah Everard’s killer, Wayne Couzens, the necrophiliac David Fuller and terrorist Ali Harbi Ali, who murdered MP Sir David Amess.
A total of 70 criminals are serving a whole-life order – four of whom are being held in secure hospitals. They will never be considered for release unless there are exceptional compassionate grounds to warrant it.
In the past, home secretaries could issue whole-life tariffs, as they were previously known, and these are now determined by judges.
Under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, which became law last year, the government expanded the use of whole-life orders for the premeditated murder of a child.
The reforms also allow judges to hand out the maximum sentence to 18- to 20-year-olds in exceptional cases, such as for acts of terrorism leading to mass loss of life.
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