“Lord Chief Justice Woolf and his entourage of liberal judges care more for the criminals than they do for the victims and their families. The lengths of these minimum sentences are an absolute insult to the families of those who have been murdered,” he said.Lord Woolf said the starting points of 12 years and 16 years for life sentences were the equivalent of determinate sentences of 24 years and 32 years. “In fact, an offender is most unlikely to be released on the expiry of the minimum term and for the purpose of calculating the earliest date of normal release on licence, the minimum term is approximately the equivalent of a determinate sentence of twice its length.”In the case of young offenders, the “sentencing judge should always start from the normal starting point appropriate for an adult [12 years]” and then reduce the starting point to “take into account the maturity and age of the offender”. He said: “Some children are more, and others are less, mature for their age and the reduction that is appropriate in order to achieve the correct starting point will very much depend on the stage of the development of the individual. The sort of reduction from the 12-year starting point which can be used as a rough check is about one year for each year that the offender’s age is below 18.”So, for a child of 10, the judge should be considering a starting point in the region of five years.”Having arrived at the starting point, the judge should then take account of the aggravating and mitigating factors.The welfare needs of the offender also had to be taken into account, he said..

A man who handcuffed and stabbed to death a 16-year-old schoolgirl in his car was jailed for life yesterday. He told her he had an interest in magic and asked if she would be his assistant in a trick involving handcuffs.But after the two left the pub in Martock, he lured her into his car and drove her to a remote country lane near the village of Stembridge where he handcuffed her and tried to have sex with her.He then produced a kitchen knife and stabbed her six times in the chest, before removing her underwear and leaving her dead by the side of the road, Bristol Crown Court was told. Later, he returned to move the victim to a lane near the hamlet of West Lambrook. She was found there by a horserider, said Richard Smith QC, for the prosecution.On the day of the murder Cornelius withdrew some money from his father’s account and took a train from Yeovil to Waterloo station in London, where he booked himself into a hotel.

He was arrested in the capital the following day after his victim was discovered.Sentencing Cornelius to life imprisonment, the judge, Mr Justice Maurice Kay, said Gemma was an “intelligent, lively, outgoing, decent girl.”I have no doubt that she would have achieved much had she lived,” he said. “You killed her and in so doing, you brought indescribable loss and grief to her family and friends that will stay with them for ever This was quite simply a dreadful murder of a young girl. I expect there to be a very long time before anybody even considers your release.”Patrick Mason, in defence of Cornelius, said that he was an “inadequate” man who could not hold down a steady job or relationship and who had been bullied at school.He said Cornelius could not explain why he had killed Gemma, but said that he was in a “chaotic state of mind”. Mr Mason also argued that the defendant deserved credit for pleading guilty to the offence.. Germany’s attempt to stop the euro being used as an excuse to push up prices appeared to be failing yesterday when the government conceded it had no legal powers to prevent the practice. The cost of 80 per cent of goods and services in Germany has increased by an average of 10 per cent since the euro’s introduction in January, a study has revealed.The meeting had been called to address complaints from the German public about flagrant price increases and a consumer boycott of restaurants and goods. Opinion polls suggest 54 per cent of Germans want the return of the DMark.Mrs K?t said Germany would not be taking action to outlaw euro-linked price increases.

“There will be no means of pressurising retailers into offering fairer prices,” she said. “However, I am sure that we will find one way or another of establishing who deals fairly and who is the black sheep.”Hubertus Pellengahr, the head of the country’s Retailers’ Association, flatly refused to accept that the increases were connected to the euro “They are connected to seasonal fluctuations. Nobody is forcing consumers to buy tomatoes when they are at their most expensive,” he said.But a survey for the television channel ARD showed that prices of milk products and beer typically had gone up by 7 per cent, with no seasonal explanation. Fruit and vegetable prices were up by 14 per cent, on average, partly because of a cold winter.The worst offenders appear to be restaurants, where the average price of a meal has gone up by 10 per cent since January. Any broadening of the current consumer boycott could damage Mr Schr?’s chances in autumn elections.. The Euro’s honeymoon with consumers ended in dramatic fashion yesterday when a European Commission survey showed that more than two-thirds of those using the currency believe they have been systematically cheated.