Lords inflict teen killers defeat

The government wanted a 15-year minimum jail term

Plans to change the way teenage murderers are sentenced have been thrown out by the House of Lords.

Ministers wanted to set a 15-year minimum jail sentence for under-18s convicted of murder in British courts.

The vote is the latest defeat in the Lords for the government's flagship Criminal Justice Bill.

The government said judges would still have discretion but opposition peers argued teenagers can quickly change.

Character changes

The government was defeated by 202 votes to 113, majority 89, on a Conservative amendment during the report stage of the bill.

Tory spokeswoman Baroness Anelay of St Johns said the cut-off point at 18 should be maintained.

She was backed by Labour backbench peer Baroness Mallalieu QC, who said in some cases young defendants changed remarkable even before their trial.

She said: "A boy I represented aged 16 was subsequently convicted of two murders.

"Having spent nearly a year in secure accommodation, came to his trial with such determination to better himself that he had become interested in subjects that before had not occupied his time.

"He had been a truant but at his trial arrangements were made to delay it each morning so that he could take his GCSE examinations which he was passionate to do and then passed...

"He is now in the process of serving his sentence. But where you have remarkable change it would seem to me a major mistake to abandon flexibility within the system."

Winning public confidence

Home Office Minister Baroness Scotland said after careful consideration the government had decided it was "essential" for minimum terms to be set for juvenile murderers.

After the vote, the Home Office said the proposed framework gave courts scope to take proper account of juveniles' special needs, with their age taken as a mitigating factor.

"A clear, simple and transparent sentencing structure is essential in maintaining public confidence in the justice system, particularly when pertaining to the abhorrent crime of murder," it said.

A Labour Party spokesman criticised the Conservative amendment, stressing that new Tory leader Michael Howard had fought for a 15-year jail term for the child killers of toddler James Bulger.