Law chief upholdssentence on torturebrothers

Martin Slack

THE Government’s chief law officer yesterday said she had decided not to challenge the sentences handed down to two brothers who sadistically tortured two young boys.

The attackers, now aged 11 and 12, were sentenced to indefinite detention with a minimum term of five years last month for the brutal assault in Edlington, near Doncaster.

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The Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, was urged to refer the sentences to the Court of Appeal after protests from the victims of the family and children’s charities.

But in a statement she said: “The judge was clearly correct to impose indeterminate sentences of detention and I agree with his analysis and with the minimum terms he set.”

There was public outcry over the sentence and it was suggested it was wrong that the boys could be released before their 16th birthdays.

As a result, Lady Scotland called in the papers used during the case at Sheffield Crown Court, but yesterday said the jail terms were not unduly lenient.

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In her statement she accepted the case was “truly shocking”, but said five years was the “very least” the boys would serve and added they will only be released when the risk they pose to the public is seen as “acceptable”.

She said: “If I believe the Court of Appeal should examine a sentence I won’t hesitate to ask. In this case the judge approached the sentencing exercise with care and, after looking at all the factors involved, I do not consider the terms to be unduly lenient.

“I do want to emphasise an important point made by the judge, which is that five years is the very least these boys will serve.

“Both of these sentences will prevent the offenders’ release from custody unless and until the Parole Board decides that the risk that they pose to the public is acceptable. Release is by no means automatic.”

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Sentencing the pair, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, High Court judge, Mr Justice Keith described their crimes as “truly exceptional”.

He told the attackers they had carried out their assaults “for no reason other than that you got a real kick out of hurting and humiliating them”.

The victims, then aged nine and 11, were subjected to 90 minutes of violence and sexual humiliation. They were strangled, hit with bricks, made to eat nettles, stripped and forced to sexually abuse each other. The older boy was seriously injured when part of a sink was dropped on him.

Doncaster Council apologised to the victims and their families for its failings in the case and admitted that social workers were “reluctant” to get involved with the attackers’ troubled family.

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Claude Knights from charity Kidscape, which called for longer sentences, said last night she hoped the boys would not be released until they no longer posed a threat.

She said: “This was an appalling case which highlighted many issues, not least the failure of multi-agency working in Doncaster which missed 31 separate opportunities to take measures that would have prevented the horrific attacks.”