Review urged of youngest killers' custodial terms

Shawn Seesahai, 19, was fatally stabbed in Wolverhampton last year by two boys who were then aged 12

The attorney general's office has been asked to review minimum custodial terms given to two boys who, aged 12, murdered a man.

The boys killed Shawn Seesahai, 19, in an unprovoked attack in Wolverhampton, last November, and concerns have been raised that their eight-year minimum tariffs, issued last week, were too lenient.

The pair, who are now 13 and cannot be named, were found guilty of murder in June and will remain on licence for life.

They are the youngest convicted killers since Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, who murdered two-year-old James Bulger in 1993.

The attorney general’s office has confirmed to the BBC it has “received a request for their sentences to be considered under the Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) scheme”.

The office, which does not disclose who submits requests, said it had “28 days from sentencing to consider the case and make a decision”.

The ULS scheme allows anyone to ask the attorney general’s office to review certain crown court sentences.

The attorney general or the solicitor general will conduct the review and, if they deem the sentence too lenient, they can then ask the Court of Appeal to review the issue and make a final decision.

Maneshwary and Suresh Seesahai spent their life savings repatriating their son Shawn's body from the UK back to the island of Anguilla, where he was born

Shawn Seesahai, who was from Anguilla in the Caribbean, had only been in the UK for six months when he was murdered.

He had travelled to the UK for eye surgery after injuring himself while playing basketball and had settled in Handsworth, Birmingham, and hoped to study engineering.

Maneshwary and Suresh Seesahai, his parents, were forced to use their life savings to fund the repatriation of their son’s body and also took out a loan to attend his killers’ trial.

Because of costs, they were not able to travel to the UK again for the sentencing, instead watching it from Anguilla via a video link.

The Anguillan government’s UK Office has now set up a GoFundMe page where people can donate “to help the family with the huge costs they have spent on this tragedy”.