Family HandoutThe UK’s youngest knife murderers have had the minimum terms of their life sentences increased for the killing of Shawn Seesahai.
The ruling at the Court of Appeal increased the minimum terms of the two 13-year-old boys from eight-and-a-half years to 10 years.
The children, known only as BGI and CMB, were 12 when they murdered the 19-year-old on November 13 last year on Stowlawn playing fields, Wolverhampton.
Mr Seesahai was stabbed through the heart and lungs with a machete and died at the scene.
The boys were previously detained for a minimum of eight years and six months.
The Solicitor General had referred the sentences of both boys to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme (ULS).
On Thursday, lawyers for the Solicitor General said their sentences were unduly lenient and should be increased, stating it was a “particularly serious type of case”.
The judge said full written reasons for the decision would be given at a later date.
The boys are believed to be the youngest defendants convicted of murder in the UK since 11-year-olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were found guilty of killing two-year-old James Bulger in 1993.
Family HandoutAnguilla-born Mr Seesahai had been living in Birmingham at the time of his killing.
In a victim impact statement, read at a previous sentencing hearing, his family said they were haunted by thoughts of how scared he must have been.
They described his murder as tragic, unexpected and senseless, and committed “for no reason at all”.
The ULS scheme allows sentences to be referred to the Court of Appeal if the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) considers them potentially “unduly lenient”.
Under the scheme, any person or institution can ask for sentences handed down in a crown court to be reviewed.
The two boys were convicted at Nottingham Crown Court in September.
