Student murders: Jail terms slammed

My Account
Logout

Create an Evening Standard Account

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Welcome! Sign in here

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Forgot your password ?

Registration

* indicates fields that are mandatory

Email *

Password *

Confirm Password *

First name *

Surname *

Postcode *

Country *

Mobile phone number

Username *

Gender *

Year of birth *

When you sign up...

You will have access to all our online competitions, discounted offers and can post comments on our site.

You will also receive The Weekender newsletter sent every Thursday - it’s full of fantastic offers and ideas for the weekend. You can update your email preferences in your account page when you log in.

Other newsletters and emails

Homes & Property Newsletter - Yes I want to receive the weekly email with all the latest news on property in the capital

Occasionally we would also like to send you relevant emails detailing specific offers either from ourselves or carefully selected partners. If you would prefer not to receive these then please tick the appropriate boxes below. We will never pass on your details.

I do not want to receive additional offers and information from the Evening Standard

I do not want to receive additional offers and information sent by Evening Standard on behalf of carefully selected partners

Terms and Conditions

* I have read, understood and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of Evening Standard

Registration

Mail Sent for Registration Confirmation.

A confirmation email has been sent. Please activate your account by clicking on the activation link sent in your mail box.

A series of blunders meant Dano Sonnex was not returned to prison before he brutally stabbed to death Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez in an "orgy of bloodletting" in June last year.

Shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve said the tragic killings were the result of "serious and systemic failures" across the criminal justice system.

Speaking in the House of Commons, he criticised the way Sonnex was released on licence part-way through a lengthy jail term four months before the murders.

He said: "He was serving an eight-year sentence for robberies and violence. Yet despite 40 breaches of prison discipline, including violence to staff and inmates, he had to be released in less than five years. Sonnex, a dangerous criminal, slipped through every crack in the system."

Mr Grieve said these systemic failings were the direct result of fixed-term prison sentences that were "utterly meaningless" because inmates had to be released at, or soon after, the halfway stage no matter how bad their behaviour.

He also criticised the probation service's focus on finding Sonnex a job and a place to live on his release when protecting the public should have been its priority. This was "yet another symptom" of "the confused priorities, the paralysis and the lack of direction" in the system, he alleged.

Mr Grieve said: "This Government's systemic failures have put the public at greater risk."

Responding, Justice Secretary Jack Straw told the Commons that Sonnex had been released from his eight-year sentence at the latest possible moment under the existing laws. But new legislation introduced since he was jailed in March 2003 would have allowed the courts to give him an indefinite sentence for public protection.

Mr Straw said: "It is almost certain that in this case in 2003, had the IPP (indefinite public protection sentence) been available, Sonnex would have been given it and he probably would not have been released. It's one of the reasons why we introduced this sentence, to cope with exactly this kind of offender."