Murder sentencing review announced in wake of Nottingham attacks

The government has announced plans to review the way killers are sentenced in the wake of the Nottingham attacks.

Valdo Calocane stabbed Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates in June 2023 and was convicted of manslaughter, rather than murder, due to his paranoid schizophrenia.

In a written ministerial statement, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the way homicide is dealt with had not been reviewed since the early 2000s.

She said that in the wake of Calocane’s attack, there have been calls for a change in how “diminished responsibility should be reflected in the classification of homicide offences”.

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In a written ministerial statement, she said: “Following the Nottingham attacks last year, the families of the victims have also called for homicide law reform, particularly with regard to how diminished responsibility should be reflected in the classification of homicide offences.

“Our current sentencing framework for murder was first introduced over 20 years ago, and multiple, piecemeal amendments have been made to it since then.

“The Law Commission will review the law relating to homicide offences, including full and partial defences to those offences, and this time also the sentencing framework for murder.”

Ms Mahmood said there had also been concerns about “gendered disparities for murders committed in a domestic context”, including “the inadequate reflection of prior abuse in minimum terms for abusive men who kill their female victims, and disproportionately long tariffs for women who kill their male abusers”.

The justice secretary said that alongside the review, she would also bring forward legislation to implement two new statutory aggravating factors for murder sentencing, which will mean judges will have to consider tougher jail terms for murders involving strangulation or when the killing is connected to the end of a relationship.

A consultation into murder sentencing was first announced by Rishi Sunak’s government last year, as part of its strategy to tackle violence against women and girls.

Ms Mahmood said nearly a third of the murder cases analysed by Clare Wade KC, who is carrying out a review into domestic homicide, involved strangulation.

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She said that in over a third of cases, the murder occurred at the end, or perceived end, of the relationship, and that this appeared to be the catalyst for the murder.

Ms Mahmood added: “We anticipate that the Law Commission review will take several years to complete, and the government will then need to consider the recommendations and bring forward any necessary legislation.

“This is the right course of action for such a complex area of law, but it is not a quick one.”