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'Whole life' sentences can continue forworst offences, appeal court rules Attorney-general sought clarification after European court of human rights court said

sentence must be reviewed after 25 years

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  Alan Travis, home affairs editor

   theguardian.com, Tuesday 18 February 2014 10.05 GMT

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The European court of human rights had ruled 'whole life' terms should be reviewed

 because they breach a prisoner's human rights. Photograph: Stephen Hird/Reuters

British judges can continue to impose "whole life" prison sentences in the most heinous

cases of murder, the court of appeal has ruled.

The appeal judges confirmed that a European court of  human rights ruling last year that

such whole life sentences needed to be reviewed after 25 years does not prevent

murderers being sent to prison for the rest of their lives in the most serious cases.

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The appeal court judges, led by the lord chief justice, said the European human rights

 judges had been wrong to say British law did not provide whole life inmates with any

 possibility of release and said that such a power clearly existed in exceptional

circumstances.

The ruling increases the 40-year sentence on Ian McLoughlin, the murderer of GrahamBuck, to a whole life prison term after an appeal by the attorney-general, Dominic

Grieve, that it was unduly lenient.

The appeal court also dismissed a challenge in a second case brought by killer Lee

 Newell against his whole life order for the murder of Subhan Anwar.

The ruling clears the way for sentencing in a number of high-profile murder cases that

had been put on hold pending its outcome. They include the prison terms to be handed

out to Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, who were convicted in December of

killing Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, south-east London, in May last year . 

The justice secretary, Chris Grayling, welcomed the decision. He said: "Our courts

should be able to send the most brutal murderers to jail for the rest of their lives. I think

 people in Britain will be glad that our courts have disagreed with the European court of

human rights, and upheld the law that the UK parliament has passed."

The attorney-general welcomed the court's decision to declare the 40-year sentence

 passed on McLoughlin, aged 55, as "unduly lenient" for such a heinous crime and

impose a whole life term instead: "As someone who has killed three times, Ian

McLoughlin committed just such a crime, and following today's judgment he has

received the sentence that crime required.

"I asked the court of appeal to look again at McLoughlin's original sentence because I

did not think that the European court of human rights had said anything which

 prevented our courts from handing down whole life terms in the most serious cases.

"The court of appeal has agreed with me and today's judgment gives the clarity our

 judges need when they are considering sentencing cases like this in the future."

The lord chief justice, Lord Thomas, said McLoughlin and Newell were two

exceptional and rare cases of second murders committed by people who were already

serving life sentences for murder: "It is likely to be rare that the circumstances will besuch that a whole life order is required. Our decision on each case turns on its specific

facts and cannot be seen as a guide to any similar case."

The need to clarify the legal status of whole life sentences followed the sentencing of

McLoughlin last October at the Old Bailey when Mr Justice Sweeney imposed a

minimum sentence of 40 years. The Old Bailey judge said he had to take account of the

European court of human rights ruling last July that the whole life sentences passed on

three killers, Douglas Vintner, Jeremy Bamber and Peter Moore, amounted to inhumane

and degrading treatment because it lacked any formal review mechanism that would

give any prospect of release.

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The lord chief justice said it was clear the Old Bailey judge had been in error in thinking

that he did not have the power to give a whole life order.

The five appeal court judges, including Thomas, ruled that Strasbourg had been wrong

to state that whole life prisoners had no hope of release. They pointed to section 30 of

the Crime (Sentences) Act, which provides for the "possible exceptional release ofwhole life prisoners", saying it did provide that prospect.

"In our judgment the law of England and Wales therefore does provide to an offender

'hope' or the 'possibility' of release in exceptional circumstances which render the just

 punishment originally imposed no longer justifiable," said the lord chief justice.

He said it was consistent with the rule of law that such requests should only be

considered on an individual basis. However, the judges said they found it difficult to

specify what such exceptional circumstances might be.

The effect of the appeal court ruling is to restore the position before the Strasbourgruling last July. Justice ministers are expected to use it to back their argument with the

European human rights court that they will not grant an automatic right of review of the

whole life sentences currently imposed on 53 of the most heinous killers in jails in

England and Wales.

Jill Lorimer, a criminal law specialist at Kingsley Napley, said although the appeal court

might face criticisms of judicial lawmaking it had found a solution that might allow the

UK to comply with the Vinter ruling without a protracted political wrangle.