Phil Mackie
At Nottingham Crown Court

The 13-year-old boys have been detained at His Majesty's Pleasure, which is the legal equivalent of a life sentence for a juvenile.

In theory, if the boys are considered a risk to the public they may never come out of prison.

However, if they make good progress and are considered not be a risk and behave well, they will be released - subject to the parole board agreeing - when they're 20.

In giving her sentencing remarks, Mrs Justice Tipples said: "The facts of this case are horrific and shocking and can be explained very shortly."

She said the first boy bought a machete from his friend for £40, which he kept under his bed.

He came home from school on the day of the murder, got changed out of his school uniform, and took the machete out to meet the other boy and some friends.

She said Mr Seesahai had been on a bench in the playing field in Wolverhampton, leaving the bench for a few minutes and walking past the defendants, who then went and sat on the bench.

Mr Seesahai then returned to the bench after a few minutes and asked the boys to move.

"Moments later he was dead," the judge said.

Mrs Justice Tipples has returned to the courtroom and the hearing has resumed.

She is speaking about Mr Seesahai and said he was a young man adored by his family.

“He had his whole life ahead of him,” she said.

Her remarks are being televised, and you can watch them by clicking watch live at the top of this page.

The boys have both been sentenced to eight years and six months in custody before they are eligible for parole, which includes the time they have already spent in detention.

However, the judge told them they will both be on licence for the rest of their lives.

The judge told the boys in their sentencing: "I cannot be sure which one of you stabbed Shawn through the body, only you know that."

However, she said the pair "acted together to kill him", adding "you are both responsible for his death."

Mrs Justice Tipples has called for a short break in proceedings and the two boys have been sent back to their rooms.

The hearing is scheduled to resume at midday.

The judge, Mrs Justice Tipples, told the boys she had to consider them both as individuals, but decided on the same minimum term for both of them.

"I must consider all that I know about you as people and what has happened in your lives – which includes your age and how mature you are for your age," she said.

"You are different individuals with different family backgrounds and different life experiences."

After she told them how long they must serve in custody, one of the boys nodded before hugging his mother.

The other boy bit his lip and then wiped his eyes.

Two 13-year-old boys have been sentenced to a minimum of eight years and six months in custody for the murder of 19-year-old Shawn Seesahai in Wolverhampton.

They are the youngest convicted murderers since the killers of James Bulger.

The pair were 12 at the time of the murder.

Mrs Justice Tipples addressed one of the boys and said he was the owner of the machete.

She said his family life had been disrupted and he had many experiences that affected him.

“Because you are so young, you’ve not realised the effect those experiences have had on you,” she said.

Addressing the two boys, Mrs Justice Tipples said: “When you killed Shawn he was 19, starting out on his adult life with everything to live for."

She said the family’s lives had been changed forever.

“What you both did was horrific and shocking,” she said.

Addressing the court, Mrs Justice Tipples said she wanted to take a moment to think about Shawn and his family.

She described him as a young man who had his whole future ahead of him.

“The sentence will not comfort his family,” she added.

After a short delay, the judge, Mrs Justice Tipples, has entered the court and the hearing is set to begin imminently.

The two boys have also been brought into the courtroom.

We're hearing the family of one of the defendants are late due to flooding in Nottingham causing traffic disruption.

But it looks like we are about to get started, 30 minutes later than planned. The boys are about to be brought into the court room.

Phil Mackie
At Nottingham Crown Court

The five-week trial and the two-day sentencing hearing have been unusual for many reasons. Because of the boys’ ages special arrangements were made, and so many of the things you would expect to see in a Crown court trial were changed.

The Judge in the case was Mrs Justice Tipples, a High Court Judge, who would normally wear a dark red robe and wig during a criminal trial. In this case the traditional mode of dress was abandoned for a plainer, more sober business suit.

The same applied to the barristers, who didn’t wear their gowns and wigs, and court staff who didn’t wear their gowns. It was to try to make it less intimidating for the boys. It wasn’t just to put them at ease, but to ensure they received a fair trial, and to make it less likely there would be any appeals against verdicts or sentence.

The trial was heard in one of the smallest court rooms in Nottingham, court nine. This was to make the setting less intimidating. Crown court trials usually sit most days from 10 or 10:30 until 16:30. In this case regular hours were from 10:30 until 15:30, with regular breaks every 40 minutes.

In a trial like this sessions often last an hour or longer before an adjournment. It was to make it feel more like a school day, to help the boys concentrate and prevent them getting too tired.

They didn’t sit in the dock, where defendants in murder trials would ordinarily sit flanked by security guards. Here they had a family member and a specially trained intermediary sitting alongside them to help give emotional support and explain the proceedings.

There was very little room in court. Suresh and Maneshwary Seesahai came to every day of the trial, but close to the relatives of the defendants in the public gallery. There were only a couple of seats for journalists, who tended to follow proceedings via a video link instead.

Katie Thompson
BBC News

We're waiting for proceedings to get under way here in court nine. Six jurors from the trial of the two boys have returned to see Mrs Justice Tipples pass her sentence.

Waiting on the video link from Anguilla, where is it the early hours of the morning, are Shawn's parents, Maneshwary and Suresh.

The UK representative for Anguilla's government, Dorothea Hodge, who read out their victim impact statement on Thursday in a powerful delivery to a silent court, has also returned today. She will speak to the media again on behalf of the family after the sentence is handed down.

We should be getting started shortly.

Det Insp Damian Forrest from West Midlands Police described the case as "shocking".

"Sadly, this is not the first case that I have investigated of a young man losing his life to knife crime, but it is the first that I have looked at two 12-year-olds being responsible," he said.

"That is something that took me by surprise and will stay with me."

He said it was "sad" that the West Midlands had the highest rate of knife crime offences in England and Wales, but that strategies were in place.

Image source, West Midlands Police

The boys' trial heard the pair had screenshots of knives, like the one used on Mr Seesahai, on their phones, and had searched online for news articles about the attack.

One boy had also searched online for "how many criminal records can you have to leave the country” a day after the murder on 14 November.

One had posed in a mask with the murder weapon for a picture hours before the killing, and was found to have 11 areas of bloodstaining on his clothing.

He was also seen with blood on his hands after the murder, while his friend had a small area of bloodstaining on his right trainer.

The morning after the death of Mr Seesahai, the two killers and some friends were talking on snapchat, after a video of the police cordon around the murder scene was shared in a group chat.

"It is what it is," one of the defendants said in a voice note.

One said "I'm scared man," while the other replied "I'm not."

One of the boys also said "IDRC", meaning, "I don't really care."

Image source, West Midlands Police

The machete used to kill Mr Seesahai was found under the bed of one of the boys, who was said to have had a fascination with knives.

His internet search history showed he spent a lot of time searching for similar weapons.

He had posed for a photo with the murder weapon and boasted about it to two girls who had been with the pair in the park that day.

One of the girls told police it was not unusual for him to carry the machete and the two boys would pass it between them.

Mr Seesahai was struck with a machete to his back, legs and skull, and also beaten.

He was hit so hard on the skull with the weapon that a piece of bone came away.

There were also slash wounds on his leg, and an injury all the way from his back, through his ribs and into his heart.

During the trial jurors heard the two boys attacked their victim with such ferocity that in one blow, the 16-inch (42.5cm) machete almost passed through his body.

A witness told the police she saw one boy using the machete on Mr Seesahai's legs and the other was punching and stamping on his head.