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Page last updated at 13:29 GMT, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 14:29 UK

Girl knife killer's sentence cut

Jordan Jobson
Jobson had admitted manslaughter but denied murdering Ms Madgin

A teenager who stabbed a young mother to death after bingeing on drink and drugs has had her minimum sentence cut by three years at the Court of Appeal.

Jordan Jobson, 16, repeatedly knifed Samantha Madgin, 18, when two groups of youths clashed in Wallsend, North Tyneside, in August last year.

She was sentenced to life with a minimum of 15 years before parole after being convicted of murder in March.

The minimum term was cut after judges heard it was "manifestly excessive".

Mr Justice David Clarke, sitting with Lord Justice Dyson and Mr Justice Henriques, said the most "powerful argument" in her favour was "her very young age and lack of maturity at the time of the offence", which he described as a "terrible act".

Samantha Madgin and son Callum
Samantha Madgin gave birth to her son Callum in May last year

The appeal court heard she had been led into a life of alcohol and drugs by a boyfriend who was three years older.

The judges stressed the period set was simply a minimum - and did not mean that she was entitled to parole after that term had expired.

Jobson, of Holywell Avenue, Walker, who was 15 at the time of the killing, drank lager and vodka and took lines of cocaine before the attack in an alleyway.

She armed herself with a knife and stabbed Ms Madgin 10 times when the young mother tried to intervene in a dispute between her friends and two men.

Ms Madgin had given birth to her son Callum just 10 weeks earlier.




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