Whole-life prison sentences will become the “default” punishment for “sexual or sadistic” murders, the prime minister has said.
Former NHS neo-natal nurse Lucy Letby was told she will never be released on Monday after being convicted of murdering seven babies and trying to kill six others on 18 August.
She is only the fourth woman to be given a whole-life tariff in England and Wales. Sixty-six men are currently serving them in prisons and secure hospitals across the two nations.
Image: Lucy Letby
But the government says it plans to change the law so that “judges are required to impose whole-life orders on the most depraved killers, except in extremely limited circumstances”.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said: “A whole life order will now be the expectation for murderers where the killing involves sexual or sadistic conduct.”
The proposed change in legislation will give judges “greater confidence to hand out whole-life orders without a risk of challenge in the Courts of Appeal”, according to ministers.
Under changes to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, which came into effect last year, the criteria for whole-life tariffs was expanded to include premeditated murders of children.
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But now “sexually-motivated” murders will also merit the most severe sentence.
New criteria could have applied to Aleena and Nessa cases
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This could have applied to the recent cases of Zara Aleena and Sabina Nessa, who were both sexually assaulted and murdered as they walked home in London.
Image: Zara Aleena
Image: Zara Aleena’s killer Jordan McSweeney
Jordan McSweeney was jailed for life with a minimum of 38 years for the murder of Ms Aleena in Ilford.
While Koci Selamaj was handed life with a minimum of 36 years for killing Ms Nessa in Greenwich.
Image: Sabina Nessa
Image: Sabina Nessa’s murderer Koci Selamaj
Wayne Couzens, the former Met Police officer who kidnapped, raped and strangled Sarah Everard as she walked home in south London in 2021, was given a whole-life sentence.
Sentencing him, Lord Justice Fulford said the seriousness of Couzens’ crimes and the “misuse of a police officer’s role” was so “exceptionally high” that they merited a whole-life tarriff.
Image: Sarah Everard
Rishi Sunak commented: “I have shared the public’s horror at the cruelty of crimes we have seen recently.
“People rightly expect that in the most serious cases, there should be a guarantee that life will mean life. They expect honesty in sentencing.
“By bringing in mandatory whole life orders for the heinous criminals who commit the most horrific types of murder, we will make sure they never walk free.”
Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed MP said Labour would not take “any lessons from this soft on crime Tory government”.
“Under their watch, nine out of ten crimes go unsolved and tens of thousands of dangerous criminals including gunmen, child abductors, and sex offenders have avoided jail sentences,” he said.
“To make matters worse, our prisons are now full because they failed to build the prison cells we need, forcing judges to hand out softer sentences.”
He added that if elected, Labour would “implement tougher sentences for dangerous criminals and build the prison places to put them behind bars”.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has said it will “pause” shipments to the US as the British car firm works to “address the new trading terms” of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The US president has introduced a 25% levy on all foreign cars imported into the country, which came into force on Thursday.
JLR, one of the country’s biggest carmakers, exported about 38,000 cars to the US in the third quarter of 2024 – almost equal to the amount sold to the UK and the EU combined.
In a statement on Saturday, a spokesperson for the company behind the Jaguar, Land Rover and Range Rover brands said: “The USA is an important market for JLR’s luxury brands.
“As we work to address the new trading terms with our business partners, we are taking some short-term actions including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid- to longer-term plans.”
The company released a statement last week before Mr Trump announced a “baseline” 10% tariff on goods from around the world, which kicked in on Saturday morning, on what he called “liberation day”.
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JLR reassured customers its business was “resilient” and “accustomed to changing market conditions”.
“Our priorities now are delivering for our clients around the world and addressing these new US trading terms,” the firm said.
Trading across the world has been hit by Mr Trump’s tariff announcement at the White House on Wednesday.
All but one stock on the FTSE 100 fell on Friday – with Rolls-Royce, banks and miners among those to suffer the sharpest losses.
Cars are the top product exported from the UK to the US, with exports worth £8.3bn in the year to the end of September 2024, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.
For UK carmakers, the US is the second largest export market behind the European Union.
Industry groups have previously warned the tariffs will force firms to rethink where they trade, while a report by thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research said more than 25,000 car manufacturing jobs in the UK could be at risk.
Two people have died following a fire at a caravan site near Skegness, Lincolnshire Police have said.
In a statement, officers said they were called at 3.53am on Saturday to a report of a blaze at Golden Beach Holiday Park in the village of Ingoldmells.
Fire and rescue crews attended the scene, and two people were found to have died.
They were reported to be a 10-year-old girl and a 48-year-old man.
The force said the victims’ next of kin have been informed and will be supported by specially trained officers.
Officers are trying to establish the exact cause of the blaze.
“We are at the very early stages of our investigation and as such we are keeping an open mind,” the force said.
A 15-year-old boy has died after “getting into difficulty” in a lake in southeast London, police say.
Officers and paramedics were called shortly after 3pm on Friday to Beckenham Place Park in Lewisham.
The Metropolitan Police said a boy “was recovered from the lake” at around 10.42pm the same day.
“He was taken to hospital where he was sadly pronounced dead. His death is being treated as unexpected but not believed to be suspicious,” according to the force.
The boy’s family has been told and are being supported by specialist officers.
The force originally said the child was 16 years old, but has since confirmed his age as 15.
In the earlier statement, officers said emergency services carried out a search and the park was evacuated.
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Image: Emergency teams were called to Beckenham Place Park on Friday afternoon
Beckenham Place Park, which borders the London borough of Bromley, covers around 240 acres, according to the park’s website.
The lake is described as 285 metres long, reaching depths of up to 3.5 metres.
It is designed as a swimming lake for open-water swimming and paddle boarding.
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said on Friday: “We were called at 3.02pm this afternoon to reports of a person in the water.
“We sent resources to the scene, including an ambulance crew, an incident response officer and members of our hazardous area response team.”
Emergency teams have not explained how the boy entered the water, or whether he was accompanied by others.