Student killers' sentences reviewed

Baroness Scotland will consider whether to refer the life sentences given to Dano Sonnex and Nigel Farmer to the Court of Appeal on the grounds that they were "unduly lenient".

Last week a judge said Sonnex would be eligible for parole after 40 years and Farmer after 35, but the families of the two young scientists said they should die in prison.

A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office said: "We have called for the case papers to consider whether the matter is one that should be referred to the Court of Appeal to consider as unduly lenient."

Jailing Sonnex and Farmer, Mr Justice Saunders said the killers gained a sick pleasure from carrying out the killings.

He said the way the murders were carried out was so appalling that they could justify a full life term. But he ruled the men should one day be eligible for release because they were too young to spend the rest of their lives in prison.

He told the court: "To condemn someone to be incarcerated for what in the case of Sonnex could be 60 years is a terrible punishment, although it could be justified for such a terrible crime.

"I have distinguished between the defendants in fixing the minimum periods because Sonnex is younger and will not reach the age when I consider, as a matter of mercy, that release can be considered, until later."

Mr Bonomo's father Guy, 45, urged the judge to impose a whole life tariff on men he described as "animals".

He said: "We were hoping for a more severe sentence. I think that these people should never get out, they should not get out."