Sentence of Luton triple killer Nicholas Prosper, who murdered his family, referred to Court of Appeal
The sentence of triple murderer Nicholas Prosper, 19, who killed his family and was planning a school shooting in Luton, has been referred to the Court of Appeal.
The referral has been made under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme, the Attorney General's Office said on Wednesday.
Prosper pleaded guilty to the murder of his mother, Juliana Falcon, 48, and his siblings, Kyle Prosper, 16, and 13-year-old Giselle Prosper at Luton Crown Court in February.
Their bodies were found at their flat in the town in September last year.
He was sentenced to 49 years in prison in March.
During sentencing, when explaining why he opted against handing out a whole-life order, the judge said: "A minimum term does not in any way equate to the value of the life of a murder victim, still less three such victims."
Prosper, 19, planned to carry out a mass shooting at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, where he and his siblings had been pupils, he admitted to police.
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The Solicitor General has referred Prosper's sentence to the Court of Appeal where "it will be argued that Prosper ought to have been given a whole life order," a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office said.
Defendants aged 18 to 20 have been liable to receive whole-life orders in exceptional circumstances since rules were changed in 2022.
But none of the orders imposed since then have been on criminals in that age bracket.
The judge said that for defendants over the age of 21, whole-life orders can be considered in cases involving two or more murders with a significant degree of premeditation or planning, or where one child is killed with similar pre-planning.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: "The court may arrive at a whole-life order in the case of an 18 to 20-year-old only if it considers that the seriousness of the combination of offences is exceptionally high, even by the standard of offences which would normally result in a whole-life order.
"This is described accurately as an enhanced exceptionality requirement.
"Despite the gravity of your crimes, it is the explicit joint submission of counsel that a lengthy, finite term will be a sufficiently severe penalty, and this is not such an exceptionally serious case of the utmost gravity where the sentence of last resort must be imposed on an offender who was 18 at the time and is 19 today."
While Prosper was "indisputably a very dangerous young man", the risk to the public was met with a life sentence, she said.
Justice Cheema-Grubb told the court she would not impose a whole-life order because Prosper was stopped from carrying out the school shooting, having murdered his family earlier than he intended after his mother woke up.
The Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme allows any member of the public to ask for certain crown court sentences to be reviewed, and if necessary, the case will be referred to the Court of Appeal.
He also pleaded guilty as soon as the charges were put to him after psychiatric reports had been completed, and he was 18 at the time of his crimes which is at the lowest end of the age bracket for whole-life terms.
Conservative shadow justice minister Dr Kieran Mullan, who referred the sentence to the Attorney General's Office under the scheme on the day Prosper was jailed, said at the time that not handing down a whole-life sentence "makes a mockery of the justice system and is an insult to the victims".
At his trial, jurors heard Prosper's aim was to be known as "the world's most famous school shooter of the 21st century".
Police believe he killed his family when his mother found a shotgun he had bought using a fake certificate and confronted him.
His scheme was eventually foiled by officers who spotted him in the street immediately after the murders and arrested him.
The loaded shotgun was found hidden in bushes nearby, along with more than 30 cartridges.
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