The British government will introduce legislation requiring judges to hand down full life sentences to the most heinous and sexually-motivated murderers, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced on Saturday. At present, the average life sentence served in the UK is between 15 and 20 years.
The plan will see mandatory whole-life sentences imposed on “society’s most depraved killers,” according to a statement from the prime minister’s office. The statement did not explain the criteria that will be used to determine how “depraved” a killer is, but named “sexually motivated murders” as one type of crime that will be covered.
Most inmates serving life sentences in the UK are released after 15 to 20 years behind bars, although longer sentences are not uncommon for particularly gruesome crimes.
Jordan McSweeney, a sexual predator described by a judge as “a danger to any woman,” received a term of at least 38 years last December for the rape and murder of law graduate Zara Aleena. Last April, Koci Selamaj received a minimum term of 36 years for the sexual assault and murder of Sabina Nessa, a teacher.
Sunak’s office said that both perpetrators would have been handed whole-life sentences under the proposed legislation.
“People rightly expect that in the most serious cases, there should be a guarantee that life will mean life,” Sunak said. “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.”
Only 70 criminals are currently serving whole-life sentences in the UK. These include former police officer and murderer Wayne Couzens, necrophiliac David Fuller, and Lucy Letby, a former neonatal nurse who was sentenced on Monday for the homicide of seven babies and the attempted murder of another six.
Sunak’s law will likely be introduced at some point between the King’s Speech in November and next year’s general election. Law and order will likely be a key campaign issue, and the Labour Party has already hammered Sunak for supposedly being “soft on crime.”
“No-one will take any lessons from this soft on crime Tory government,” shadow justice secretary Steve Reed said in a statement on Saturday. “Under their watch, nine out of 10 crimes go unsolved and tens of thousands of dangerous criminals including gunmen, child abductors, and sex offenders have avoided jail sentences.”