Killers lose tariff challenge

The Human Rights Act came into force last October

Two prisoners serving life sentences have failed in their challenge against the home secretary's power to set minimum jail terms for killers.

In a ruling on Thursday, the High Court said the home secretary was legally entitled to set minimum terms for those serving mandatory life sentences in England and Wales.

It makes it all the more difficult to understand why it's acceptable for the home secretary to set the tariff in the case of adult murderers but not juvenile murderers, as in the Bulger case

Michael Howard

The legal challenge was brought by Anthony Anderson and John Taylor who both had their tariffs for murder increased by Jack Straw.

Dismissing their application for judicial review, Lord Justice Rose, sitting with Mr Justice Sullivan and Mr Justice Penry-Davey, said: "I conclude that Parliament by primary legislation has conferred on the home secretary the power to fix the tariff for mandatory lifers."

Accusations rejected

The court rejected accusations that Mr Straw's powers to fix tariffs for retribution and deterrence were unlawful because they were "incompatible" and inconsistent with the European Convention on Human Rights and in breach of the new Humans Rights Act.

A decision against the home secretary could have paved the way for many of the country's most notorious criminals, including Moors murderer Myra Hindley, to challenge their tariffs.

The home secretary argues that setting tariffs are "administrative"

Hindley's QC Edward Fitzgerald had applied for a test case declaration on behalf of two other lifers that judges - not politicians - should set the minimum terms for mandatory lifers.

Other cases raising the same issue had been put on hold pending the outcome of this landmark decision.

But a Home Office spokesperson had said earlier that most of the 3,000 prisoners serving mandatory life sentences already had tariffs set in line with judicial guidelines.

The director of human rights organisation Liberty, John Wadham, said the verdict was wrong because politicians can never be "scrupulously fair" in the way they decide lifers' tariffs.

"[Politicians] will always have one eye over their shoulder on how their decisions will look in the tabloid press and with their party's focus groups," he said.

Tariff recommendation

Anderson, 38, was convicted in 1988 for the murder of 60-year-old Thomas Walker and Michael Tierney.

The trial judge and Lord Chief Justice recommended a tariff of 15 years on his life sentence.

But in 1994, the then home secretary Michael Howard, ruled he must serve at least 20 years.

This decision was twice confirmed by Mr Straw, who said it was justified because Anderson was a double murderer.

In 1989, Taylor, now 45, was convicted of murdering Susan McNamara, and a tariff of 16 years was set by the courts.

'Brutal nature'

But Mr Straw increased it to 22 years citing the "brutal nature" of the attack, the absence of motive, sexual interference or theft against Ms McNamara, and Taylor's previous convictions in 1983.

Edward Fitzgerald QC, for Anthony Anderson and John Taylor, was granted leave to appeal by the three judges.

Former Tory Home Secretary Michael Howard welcomed the High Court ruling.

"I think it is a very sound and sensible decision," he said.

"It makes it all the more difficult to understand why it's acceptable for the home secretary to set the tariff in the case of adult murderers but not juvenile murderers, as in the Bulger case."