The minimum term imposed of 23 years' imprisonment following an offender's conviction for murder was too high. Although the offender had been carrying a knife which he had used to stab the victim, thereby satisfying the Criminal Justice Act 2003 Sch.21 para.5A(2), there were strong statutory mitigating factors including the offender's lack of intention to kill, his youth and his previous good character: the appropriate minimum term was 20 years' detention.

CA (Crim Div) (Aikens LJ, Irwin J, Cranston J)

03/07/2013