Southport killer Axel Rudakubana to stand trial for assault

Daniel Sandford
domestic correspondent

Sometimes people convicted of the worst murders get what’s called a life sentence. It’s a life sentence with an order that the killer never be released from prison.

Two reasons judges are given to impose a full life sentence are “the killing of a child involving a significant degree of premeditation or planning” and “the killing of two or more persons involving a significant degree of planning”.

On these grounds, Axel Rudakubana’s horrific crimes – the murders of three girls under the age of 10 – and the attempted murders of eight other girls and two adults, all premeditated, would almost certainly qualify for a life sentence.

But under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, a full life sentence can only be given to someone who was 18 or over when they committed the crime.

Even then, one can only be given to someone under the age of 21 when they committed the offense when “the seriousness of the offense is unusually high”.

So Rudakubana, who was 17 when he committed the murders, must be sentenced to life with a “minimum term” before he can be released by the Parole Board on licence. His minimum term is likely to be measured in decades, but the case is so unusual that it is difficult to predict.

It used to be that no one under the age of 21 could be given a life sentence.

But when Hashem Abedi, the Manchester Arena bomber’s brother, was jailed for life with a minimum sentence of 55 years, the judge said a full life sentence “would have been the just sentence in this case given the extraordinary seriousness of his offending. including the young age of many of the intended targets and the large number of them both killed and very seriously wounded”.

This led to the law being amended in 2022, reducing the minimum age to 18.

Axel Rudakubana missed it by nine days. He committed the crimes aged 17 on July 29 last year – and turned 18 on August 7.