Lawyer killer's sentence increased

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, sitting with two other judges in London, ruled that the 17-year term imposed in the case of Delano Brown, now 19, was "unduly lenient" and raised it to 20 years.

But they ruled that the 21-year minimum period to be served by his co-defendant, Donnel Carty, also 19, before he can apply for release on parole was "perfectly appropriate" and not unduly lenient.

The pair were found guilty at the Old Bailey last November of stabbing the 31-year-old solicitor during an attack just yards from the London home he shared with his fiancee.

Carty was originally given detention for life with a minimum term of 21 years and Brown, who was only 17 at the time of the murder, was ordered to be detained at Her Majesty's Pleasure, serving a minimum 17 years.

The move to have those minimum terms increased by the Court of Appeal was made by the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith QC, who considered that they did not sufficiently reflect the "very serious nature" of the case.

The three judges rejected submissions on behalf of Carty and Brown, who were both present in the dock for the ruling, that far from being unduly lenient, their sentences were too long.

Lord Phillips described it as a "very serious murder".

Mr ap Rhys Pryce was robbed of his mobile phone, travelcard and £20 and left dying in a gutter as he made his way home from Kensal Green Tube station in north-west London in January 2006.

The Cambridge graduate was stabbed in the chest, face, thigh and arm when he refused to hand over his belongings.

His attackers had been part of a gang who robbed 10 people on Underground trains the previous month - two of the victims were stabbed in the thigh with a knife.