
Triple murderer will not be given whole-life order, Court of Appeal rules
The 19-year-old was also sentenced for weapons offences, having plotted a mass shooting at his former primary school.
The Solicitor General referred Prosper's sentence to the Court of Appeal in April, with barristers telling a hearing in London that a whole-life term was a 'just punishment' for the 'exceptional' crimes.
Barristers for Prosper, who is due to be released in his late 60s at the earliest, said the sentence 'cannot be said to be unduly lenient'.
In a ruling, the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, sitting with Mr Justice Goss and Mr Justice Wall, said that Prosper's sentence was 'itself a very severe sentence for a 19-year-old'.
She said: 'These were undoubtedly offences of the utmost gravity, with multiple features incorporating disturbing, recurrent themes around school shootings.'
She continued: 'Had the offender been 21 or over at the time of the offending, a whole-life order would undoubtedly have been made.'
She added that the sentencing judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, was right to conclude that the 'enhanced exceptionality test' of whether to pass a whole-life term on an 18-to-20-year-old was 'not met on the facts'.
She said: 'Parliament chose to set what is already a very high threshold for a whole-life order for an adult, even higher for a young offender.'
She concluded: 'Appalling though these crimes were, we are not persuaded that anything less than a whole-life order was unduly lenient.'
Prosper, who would have become the first person aged under 21 to be given a whole-life order if his sentence was increased, watched proceedings via a video link from HMP Belmarsh.
Whole-life orders are reserved for the most serious offences, with those handed the tariffs including Louis De Zoysa, who murdered Metropolitan Police Sergeant Matt Ratana in 2020, and Kyle Clifford, who murdered his ex-partner Louise Hunt, her sister Hannah Hunt and mother Carol Hunt last year.
Rules were changed in 2022 to allow younger defendants aged 18 to 20 to receive whole-life orders in exceptional circumstances, but no one in that age bracket has received the sentence since.
Reading out the judgment, Baroness Carr said that Prosper was 'deeply fascinated by notorious murders' and had 'started to plan emulating and indeed outdoing' the Sandy Hook school shooting in the United States.
The day before the killings, Prosper obtained a shotgun and 100 cartridges from a legitimate firearms dealer through a 'meticulously forged' gun licence, and planned to kill 34 people at a school, including 30 children.
He shot his mother in the early hours of September 13, placing a book named How To Kill Your Family on her legs, before shooting his sister.
Prosper then killed his brother, shooting him twice and stabbing him more than 100 times.
Prosper hid for more than two hours before flagging down police officers in a nearby street and showing them where he had hidden a loaded shotgun and 33 cartridges near playing fields.
Following his arrest, he was 'cheerful' and told police that he wished he had killed more people, Baroness Carr said.
Sentencing him at Luton Crown Court in March, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said that a whole-life term could only be given to someone in that age bracket if a court deemed 'that the seriousness of the combination of offences is exceptionally high'.
But she said that while Prosper was 'indisputably a very dangerous young man', the risk to the public was met with a life sentence.
The judge noted that both prosecution and defence barristers said that a whole-life term should not be imposed, and that he had not carried out the school shooting.
Tom Little KC, appearing for the Solicitor General on Wednesday, said in written submissions: 'The age of the offender and his guilty pleas, although relevant to the ultimate decision, did not inexorably lead to or mean that this was a case in which a whole-life order was not appropriate.'
David Bentley KC, for Prosper, said: 'The reality is that with the existing sentence, the earliest date he could actually be considered for parole is in his late 60s, and the dangerousness is covered by the life sentence.'
Following the ruling, the Solicitor General, Lucy Rigby, said: 'Nicholas Prosper's brutal murder of his family and plans to attack school children and teachers shocked the whole nation.
'Given the nature and scale of the intended attack, I received several requests under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme to consider his sentence.
'Following careful consideration, I concluded that Prosper's sentence should be referred to the Court of Appeal as it appeared unduly lenient.
'I respect the Court of Appeal's decision.
'My thoughts and deepest sympathies today are with Juliana, Giselle, and Kyle's loved ones, and everyone impacted by Prosper's crimes.'

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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Forget the White Van Man stereotype. The truth, finds ROBERT HARDMAN, is that the Epping hotel protests are being led by concerned mothers
Civil disorder – or civil war? It could almost be the film set for a suburban apocalypse drama. There are police vans tailing back down leafy lanes all around Epping. Platoons of coppers in full riot garb have been massing at the station, along the Georgian high street and out in the woods since mid-morning. Units have been bussed in from Hampshire, Staffordshire, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Kent, in addition to the Metropolitan Police. It's the sort of presence you might expect for a grudge match between Premier League arch-rivals or a full-fat Hamas solidarity parade through central London. Instead, these reinforcements have swamped Sir Rod Stewart 's pretty former home town in semi-rural Essex to help the local force keep an eye on 150 locals standing across the road from The Bell Hotel. What is immediately apparent is that many of the protesters are women and children. Indeed, this whole protest has been organised by women. Many – if not most – of the passing motorists who honk their horns in support are also women, including one who drives back and forth eagerly beep-beeping away in her claret Land Rover Discovery (you can forget the White Van Man stereotypes in this corner of Essex). What has galvanised these residents is a near-universal demand for the closure of The Bell as an accommodation centre for migrants following a recent attack on a 14-year-old schoolgirl. A hotel guest, a 38-year-old Ethiopian man, who had arrived in Britain eight days earlier, has been charged with three sexual assaults and denies them all. Suddenly the debate on small boat migration has become incendiary. Protests here a week ago turned violent when far-Left activists were escorted in by Essex Police to stage a counter-demo. That, in turn, brought out the usual suspects on the hard-Right and things soon turned ugly. By Thursday, though, there is no prospect of trouble because there are no dissenting voices. The rent-a-mob from Stand Up To Racism – a masked offshoot of the Socialist Workers Party – have not turned up. Nor have any hard-Right saboteurs allied to the toxic Tommy Robinson. It is raining, after all. That has not deterred the true believers who have a fervent desire to see The Bell – now fenced off and looking more like a disused military base – either bulldozed or transformed back into the local wedding venue of yesteryear. And I mean everyone. That not only applies to the drenched posse marching on the local council offices, chanting 'Save Our Kids' and 'Starmer Out', but the councillors gathered in the chamber – including Sir Keir Starmer's own man. Epping Forest council only has one Labour councillor, Martin Morris. Even he joins the Tories, Reform, the Lib Dems, the solitary Green and sundry Independents in a unanimous vote to demand the immediate closure of The Bell. In fact, they all demand a lot more than that in a thumping two-page motion which also calls for the closure of another hotel-turned-migrant centre up the road. All media eyes have been on The Bell of late, but the situation is not much better at The Phoenix Hotel. That mysteriously caught fire four months ago, although asylum seekers still occupy most of it. The man charged with arson has turned out to be a guest at The Phoenix who was then generously rehoused at, you guessed it, The Bell. The same man has been charged with trying to burn that down, too. There is a thunderous standing ovation in both the gallery and the council chamber after Tory councillor Shane Yerrell reads out a message from the father of the girl subjected to the recent assault. 'I do not want or condone any of the violence that has taken place at the protest,' says the message from the unnamed dad. 'I just want the hotel to be moved, not only away from our streets, but away from making any other family feel how we're feeling right now. 'It's not fair that the Government is putting our children and grandchildren at risk. I didn't think my little girl's story would be as big as it was.' His daughter, he adds, has been greatly comforted by messages of support and a JustGiving page which has raised £3,000 for counselling. 'Eventually we will get her confidence back to the point where she is able to go out without feeling scared.' The father, it transpires, is actually in the gallery. We have now, very clearly, got beyond the point where the Government can trot out the usual mantra 'It's all the Tories' fault and we've got this migration thing under control ' and expect things to blow over. The default position of the legal establishment, the police and most of us in the media – namely that the main problem is dark online forces stirring up xenophobia – is manifestly no longer tenable. Having spent the previous week in northern France watching the people smugglers, I have spent this week looking at the other end of the equation. I have seen the protests popping up in Epping and Canary Wharf, east London (where a huge hotel has just been commandeered by the Home Office). And there are two very striking trends to this new wave of popular protest. The first is that the protagonists are being open about it. They tell me their names and stories. There is no sense of shame or fear of being branded a 'racist' any more. The second is that this is very much a unisex campaign, if not an overtly female one. One of the main architects of the peaceful protests in Epping is Orla Minihane, a mother of three teenagers and now a vocal council candidate for the Reform Party. 'I think women are naturally more tolerant – we have got to put up with men after all – but when you start to threaten our children, then we snap,' says Mrs Minihane, who is marching through the rain waving not the Cross of St George, like some of the men, but the green, white and purple flag of the Suffragette movement. She's lived in Epping since childhood, has worked for a City bank for 25 years and is married to Scott who owns a building business ('and can't stand this political stuff'). Mrs Minihane says she was appalled by last week's violence in the town and blames Essex Police for facilitating a Left-wing counter-demo which, she says, triggered all the aggro. It has prompted Reform leader Nigel Farage to call for the resignation of the chief constable. 'There was only trouble when the police caused it,' he says. For the Tories, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp says that Essex Police 'lamentably failed to keep the protesters apart'. Mrs Minihane says: 'The day after that trouble I went on our Facebook group – there's about 700 of us – and said we are never going to win if we have more protests like that. We need to change the narrative. So we ordered a batch of T-shirts saying 'We Are The Children's Voice'. And we are going to show that this problem is much worse than people think it is.' She talks of repeated incidents of women being pestered while jogging or walking their dogs and recounts the story of a friend, a mother of four girls. Her 15-year-old, she said, was chased on the local common by a man who, she says, was living at The Bell. 'She told the police, who did nothing at first,' says Mrs Minihane. 'When she went back again, they told her to be careful. They said: 'Remember what happened to those protesters after Southport.' But we're not putting up with that any more.' I later verify the story with the girl's mother. Mr Farage explains that what Mrs Minihane is doing in Epping reflects a broader trend. 'The boats issue is increasingly becoming a female issue. Mums for Reform, call it what you will, is a real thing,' he says, pointing to this month's Tory-to-Reform defections of Laura Anne Jones, a member of the Welsh Senedd, and Westminster city councillor, Laila Cunningham, along with a marked shift in the party's membership. Having been 58 per cent male and 42 per cent female at the last election, he says, it is now 50:50. It's hard to see what more the Tory-run council can do. All are as one when it comes to the failings of the Home Office, which commandeered the hotel without consulting the locals first. 'We are speaking to the Home Office on a regular basis. I have to say to you, at the present time, they have not been overly co-operative,' council leader Chris Whitbread tells the meeting. Holly Whitbread, his fellow Tory councillor (and daughter), is more forthright: 'It is my firm belief that the Government is now treating our community with contempt. Contempt for local democracy, contempt for public safety, contempt for our town which deserves better than this.' The hotel has been the trigger for plenty of other complaints, too. Hairdresser Barry Seago tells me that today alone he has had five cancellations from customers worried about trouble in the town. Locals point to the trouble they have in finding an NHS dentist – hence their fury when they saw a mobile dental unit turn up at The Bell. This week has also seen protests an hour away at Canary Wharf, where the Home Office has taken over the vast Britannia International Hotel, which has 531 bedrooms, as a new accommodation centre. I remember the days when my old newspaper used to hold (rather dreary) office parties there. It might be more Alan Partridge than The Ritz but it's not cheap. As Whitehall maintains its customary reluctance to discuss these things, rumours are rampant that migrants will be housed three to a room, suggesting a new population of 1,500 predominantly young, undocumented adult men with nothing to do. Here, I meet a small group of protesters in the rain, all native East Enders who live around here. Once again, they are happy to be identified. 'You've got working people round here using food banks – my Mum runs one – and then people are being put up here on three square meals a day and we don't know anything about who they are,' says Ben Cavanagh, 45, a scaffolder and father of three. Fellow scaffolder Matthew John-Lewis, 44, says tensions have gone off the scale. 'I'm busting my arse off to pay taxes for all this. I can barely afford the rent on a two-bedroom flat and this lot get given everything,' argues the father of four children. He adds that he does not want his children to be targeted by gangs of bored young men who 'don't understand' British culture. 'And don't anyone dare call us racist. My family were immigrants and I'm three-quarters black,' he says. The hefty police presence here and the even bigger one in Epping are an acknowledgement that we are at a very ugly tipping point. With another Stand Up To Racism protest against the residents of Epping – or 'organised Nazis' as they call them – planned for Sunday, further outbreaks of violence are no longer a question of if – but when.

Western Telegraph
5 hours ago
- Western Telegraph
Mother of machete attack victim says ‘streets are bleeding' after killers jailed
Aspiring rapper Kelyan Bokassa said 'I want my mum' after he was mortally wounded in front of horrified passengers aboard the 472 bus in Woolwich, south-east London, on January 7. Two youths, aged 16, pleaded guilty to Kelyan's murder and having a knife. Bus CCTV image of two youths who cannot be named for legal reasons, who pleaded guilty to the murder of 14-year-old Kelyan Bokassa (Metropolitan Police/PA) In a televised sentencing on Friday, Judge Mark Lucraft KC detained them for life and set minimum terms of 15 years and 10 months. Judge Lucraft said Kenyan's death was a 'senseless loss' of yet another young life to the 'horrors of knife crime'. One of the youths in the dock of the Old Bailey smiled as he was sent down. Outside court, Kelyan's mother Marie Bokassa issued a call for action to end the bloodshed. In a statement read on her behalf, she said: 'To the Government and authorities. How many mothers like me, will it take? How many children must we bury before you act with urgency? 'Where are you? Where were you? I had no support from you when my son was alive and no support now that he is dead. A letter of condolence doesn't mean anything to us. Marie Bokassa, centre, listens as Detective Chief Inspector Sarah Lee, from Scotland Yard, who led investigation into the death of her son Kelyan, speaks outside the Old Bailey (Rosie Shead/PA) 'Our streets are bleeding. Our cemeteries are full. Our prisons are overflowing. Pain and loss is becoming normalised. 'Our streets are no longer safe for our children. Public transport is no longer safe. Schools are no longer safe. You have lost control of London.' She added: 'To the young people who carry knives, I beg you to stop before you raise up blades. Think of your own mother. Think of the mothers who will cry every night, like I do, will scream into her pillow, who will walk past her child's empty room and collapse with grief. 'Don't let a moment of anger steal your future. Don't let the streets raise you in a way your mother never would. There is no power in death, there is only loss.' Earlier, prosecutor Deanna Heer KC said Kelyan had boarded the 472 bus just after 2pm to attend an appointment at the Youth Justice Centre in Woolwich. CCTV showed Kelyan on the back seat of the top deck, with a knife in the waistband of his trousers. Ms Heer said the teenager looked around and out of the windows before taking his seat 'giving every impression that he was concerned for his safety'. The defendants, who cannot be named, boarded the bus 20 minutes later each armed with identical machetes hidden in their clothes. The pair walked towards Kelyan 'with purpose' and withdrew their blades before immediately stabbing him without uttering a word to their victim. Ms Heer said: 'Since Kelyan Bokassa was seated on the back seat, he was cornered, unable to escape as the defendants repeatedly thrust their knives towards him, smiling as they did so.' The attack lasted around 14 seconds, with the youths thrusting the machetes towards Kelyan 27 times. Ms Heer went on: 'Kelyan Bokassa had no time to reach for his own knife, which remained in his trousers, and instead tried in vain to protect himself with his school bag. 'There were several other passengers on the top deck who fled in panic when they realised what was happening. They describe hearing intense screaming from the back of the bus and the victim shouting, 'Help. Help. I've been stabbed'. 'They describe both defendants making quick, forceful movements towards Kelyan Bokassa as he tried to defend himself.' The bus driver activated his emergency alarm just before 2.27pm and the defendants fled when the vehicle stopped at Woolwich Ferry. Kelyan stumbled down the aisle to the stairs, where another passenger went to help him. The boy was heard to say: 'Take me to my mum's. I want my mum,' before his legs buckled, bleeding heavily from a wound to the leg. Members of the public flagged down a passing police car and officers found Kelyan had collapsed and his body was limp. Despite attempts to save him, Kelyan died at the scene at 3.23pm. One of the machetes was thrown into the River Thames, but was later recovered by police. The defendants were quickly identified from CCTV on the bus and arrested. In a victim impact statement read in court, Ms Bokassa said: 'At least my son is at peace, and those two kids are going to have a really tough time. 'I ask myself what has happened to those two boys that has resulted in that terrible act of violence, and I cannot imagine how can they be so angry. 'What they did was horrific and I do not know what has led them to do this, and maybe I will never.' The court heard both defendants have previous convictions for carrying blades in public. Floral tributes are left next to a bus stop on Woolwich Church Road in Woolwich, south London (Jordan Pettitt/PA) Samantha Yelland, senior crown prosecutor for CPS London North, said: 'This was a savage and sustained attack on a 14-year-old boy which was carried out in broad daylight on a busy bus. 'We worked closely with police and were thankfully helped by clear CCTV evidence which both placed the defendants on the bus and showed one of them discarding the machete. They had little choice but to plead guilty.' Detective Chief Inspector Sarah Lee, from Scotland Yard, said it had been a 'deeply troubling' case. She said: 'The harsh reality in London is that violence disproportionately affects young black men and boys. 'The fact we're seeing so many teenagers like Kelyan die should be at the forefront of the minds of every politician, every policy maker and everyone who wants better for children growing up in London. 'Without this collective effort, we won't be able to tackle knife crime in its entirety. 'And while I am pleased that Keylan's mother, Marie, has been spared the emotional turmoil of a trial, I know that she still desperately seeks to understand why three young lives could be considered so disposable.


Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Pub chef who sexually assaulted and murdered artist as she walked dog gets six more years in jail
A pub chef who murdered an artist while she walked her dog will spend nearly six more years in prison after Court of Appeal judges increased his sentence. Harrison Lawrence Van-Pooss was jailed for life with a minimum term of 25-and-a-half years in February for killing Claire Knights, 54, in Kent almost two years ago. He ambushed her as she walked back from a beach near Minnis Bay, sexually assaulted and then murdered her before dumping her body. The 'highly sexualised' killer was seen on CCTV going to the gym and buying snacks just hours before the brutal murder. The 21-year-old then 'feigned' symptoms of psychosis following his arrest, the Court of Appeal was told on Friday. His sentence was referred by the Solicitor General for being unduly lenient, with Lord Justice Edis, Mr Justice Calver and Judge Angela Morris increasing Van-Pooss' minimum term to one of 31 years. Jonathan Polnay KC, for the SG, said the judge at Canterbury Crown Court did not give enough weight to how Ms Knights had been targeted as a lone woman, the extreme nature of the violence and that her body had been hidden for two days before it was discovered. He also said the judge gave too much credit for Van-Pooss's guilty plea and his sentence therefore 'required an uplift of substance'. Quoting Canterbury Crown Court judge Mr Justice Garnham, he said: 'This was a merciless beating causing catastrophic brain injuries and multiple facial fractures. There would have been a very significant period of mental and physical suffering. 'She must have been terrified as she considered the likelihood that you were going to kill her.' Mr Polnay added: 'That is an aggravating factor of some weight. That's not part and parcel of a murder.' He also referenced mitigating factors considered by the original judge. One of those was Van-Pooss' guilty plea, which he submitted in December 2024, over a year after Ms Knights' death in August 2023. This followed several reports to determine the 21-year-old's mental status due to his presenting psychotic symptoms. It was deemed he did not have psychosis, and it was suggested he had faked such symptoms. Mr Polnay said: 'It took some considerable time for the plea to be entered. Reports were necessary for this case. 'I entirely accept the offender does have a mental disorder, but he inevitably made the process longer and more complicated. 'He is someone who has malingered and continued to present false symptoms.' Stephen Moses KC, for Van-Pooss, said the targeting was 'a matter of moments rather than pre-meditated'. He added: 'Any findings of fact that there was malingering are explained by the personality disorder, but are not, in our case, perverting the course of justice. 'Matters were consistent with a personality disorder rather than simply framing mental illness.' He also put forward that a previous defence taken by Van Pooss - that Ms Knights made sexual advances towards him - was never advanced, so should not alter the level of credit given. Ultimately, the Court of Appeal judges decided a mistake had been made in the original sentencing. Van-Pooss also pleaded guilty to upskirting another woman at the pub where he worked the day before he killed Ms Knights. After she reported this, Van-Pooss was dismissed on August 22, 2023, and he left, carrying a backpack with a chef's knife inside. He then built a 'den' by the railway lines near Minnis Bay, Lord Justice Edis said in his judgment. Ms Knights was believed to have been walking a white and brown spaniel called Zebulon when she ran into Van-Pooss the following day. Van-Pooss acted in a 'simple' and 'calculated' way, the judge added, as he beat her and stomped on her head, causing fractures and brain damage. Ms Knights was found concealed in a dyke, having been pushed into the water while she was still alive. Van-Pooss was arrested for the upskirting offence on the evening of the killing, and was later charged with murder. Lord Justice Edis said the killing of a lone woman created 'widespread concern in the local community' and that Van-Pooss received an unduly lenient sentence. He added: 'The first thing we wish to say is that we commend the experienced judge for his approach to this case. 'The judge, in dealing with a horrifying and dreadful case of this kind, has to firmly try and succeed in maintaining an objective approach. 'The judge's job is to apply the law it the facts of the case and to be fair to the person who is to be sentenced. That is not easy in any case like this. 'We believe in making this decision, the judge did fall into error because the aggravating factors did outweigh the mitigating factors. 'That is enforced by what we have to say about the defendant's conduct in mimicking psychosis.' They said a starting term of 33 years should have been given, with only two years deducted for the late guilty plea. Ms Knight's son Elliot Knights-Sloane and her younger sister Annie Watson spoke to KentOnline outside court today. Mr Knights-Sloane said: 'There were things that we felt were glossed over and ignored that were hugely significant in the first hearing, and have now been brought up and actually addressed. 'The principle of that is what matters more than anything else.' His aunt added: 'The three judges recognised that the perpetrator had strung this all along and malingered all the way through and fed the police the story. 'There's a sense of relief now, because every time you come (to court), it just throws you straight back to the horror of it. 'This means now we can get on and we can remember Claire as she should be remembered, and that's what's important.' Mr Knights-Sloane continued: 'We want her death to mean something, and we want something positive to come out of her death. 'If we can do anything towards stopping violence against women, that would be a positive thing.' At Canterbury Crown Court, Ms Knights' friends and family heard harrowing details of how she was ambushed as she strolled with her Springer spaniel in Minnis Bay, Birchington, on August 23, 2023. Van-Pooss subjected her to a vicious sexual assault and beating before dumping her unconscious, but still alive, in a nearby water-filled dyke. Solicitor General Lucy Rigby said: 'Lawrence Van-Pooss's attack on Claire Knights was horrific. He assaulted and brutally murdered her, in a totally random attack. 'I welcome the court's decision to increase Van-Pooss's sentence and I would like to express my deepest sympathies to Claire's family and loved ones.'