Whole-life sentences will become ‘default’ for sexually motivated or sadistic murders, PM says

Published

2 years ago

August 27, 2023

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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.

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.

But now “sexually-motivated” murders will also merit the most severe sentence.

New criteria could have applied to Aleena and Nessa cases

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.

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.

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.

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”.

Politics

Nigel Farage dared me to walk in London after 9pm: Here’s my response

Published

3 hours ago

August 4, 2025

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Nigel Farage dared me to walk in London after 9pm: Here's my response

At a press conference today in which Reform UK announced the Tory police and crime commissioner for Leicestershire was joining their ranks, as well as former prison governor Vanessa Frake, I asked Nigel Farage a simple question.

But his answer wasn’t what I expected.

I asked the Reform UK leader if the six-week campaign on law and order, with the tagline “Britain is Lawless”, was in fact project fear scaring people into voting for his party.

He utterly rejected that claim and responded to me saying: “No, they are afraid. They are afraid. I dare you, I dare you to walk through the West End of London after 9 o’clock of an evening wearing jewellery. You wouldn’t do it. You know that I’m right. You wouldn’t do it.”

I am not afraid to walk in the West End of London after 9pm wearing jewellery.

I have done it many times before and will continue to do so… but perhaps that is because I do not own a Rolex.

However, just because Farage is wrong on that point, doesn’t mean he isn’t tapping into other legitimate fears across the country.

Snatch theft does worry me, hence why I now have a phone case with a strap attached to it that I can put around my body.

And I worry about knife crime in my area and what the impact could be if I were to have children – on the weekend someone was stabbed to death a stone’s throw from my house.

However, if we look at the statistics, it is invariably a more nuanced picture than Farage or social media might have us believe.

According to police reports, thefts from a person in London are almost five times the national average, and they’ve been going up since the pandemic.

And the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also notes that thefts outside of the home, eg phone snatching, has increased.

However, possession of weapons has fallen in London by 29% over the last three years.

And according to the ONS, crime in England and Wales is 30% lower than in 2015, and 76% lower than 1995.

And it is a similar picture for violent crime.

In short, am I right to be more worried that snatch theft and knife crime in London is increasing? Yes, and no.

But Nigel Farage is tapping into voters’ emotions – their feelings that the country is broken. It’s a picture the Conservative Party helped to create and the Labour Party happily painted to great effect during the general election campaign of 2024.

And the more politicians of all colours tell voters that “the system is broken”, the more voters might start to believe them.

That is what Nigel Farage is banking on.

Politics

Crypto funds see $223M outflow, ending 15-week streak as Fed dampens sentiment

Published

6 hours ago

August 4, 2025

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Crypto funds see 3M outflow, ending 15-week streak as Fed dampens sentiment

Profit-taking broke a 15-week winning streak of global cryptocurrency ETPs last week after hawkish remarks that followed last week’s US Fed rate decision.