Latest news with #JulianaFalcon
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Yahoo
Court rules against giving triple killer Nicholas Prosper a whole-life order
Triple murderer Nicholas Prosper will not be given a whole-life order after a bid to increase his sentence was dismissed at the Court of Appeal. Prosper, 19, would have become the first person aged between 18 and 20 to be given a whole-life tariff if three senior judges had ruled that his sentence should be raised. He was jailed in March for a minimum term of 49 years, less 188 days already spent in custody, after admitting killing his mother, Juliana Falcon, 48, and siblings Giselle Prosper, 13, and Kyle Prosper, 16, at their family flat in Luton, Bedfordshire, on September 13 2023. He also admitted weapons charges after plotting a mass shooting at his former primary school in the town. If he had succeeded, he would have carried out the first major school shooting in Britain since the 1996 massacre in Dunblane, Scotland, in which Thomas Hamilton murdered 16 children and a teacher before turning the gun on himself. The Solicitor General referred his sentence to the Court of Appeal as 'unduly lenient', with barrister Tom Little KC, for the Solicitor General, stating that the case was 'exceptional'. Nicholas Prosper murdered his mother and two siblings (PA Media) 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 released on Wednesday afternoon, 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'. Nicholas Prosper's victims, from left: Giselle Prosper, Juliana Falcon and Kyle Prosper (PA Media) 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 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 in 2024. 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 then.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Yahoo
Nicholas Prosper: Teenager who murdered his family will not be given whole-life order after appeal dismissed
A teenage killer who admitted murdering his mother and two siblings will not have his sentence increased to a whole life term, the Court of Appeal has decided. Nicholas Prosper, 19, avoids being the first person aged 18 and 20 to be given a whole-life tariff, after rules were changed in 2022 to allow younger defendants aged 18 to 20 to receive whole-life orders in exceptional circumstances. No one in that age bracket has ever received that sentence. Prosper was jailed in March for a minimum term of 49 years, less 188 days already spent in custody, after admitting killing his mother, Juliana Falcon, 48, and siblings Giselle Prosper, 13, and Kyle Prosper, 16, at their family flat in Luton, Bedfordshire, on 13 September 2023. He also admitted weapons charges after plotting a mass shooting at his former primary school in the town. In a two-day sentencing hearing in April, Mrs Justice Chema-Grub had said she would not impose a whole-life order because Prosper was stopped from carrying out the school shooting. The judge had said a whole-life term could only be given to an 18 to 20-year-old if a court deemed "that the seriousness of the combination of offences is exceptionally high". She continued that while he was "indisputably a very dangerous young man", the risk to the public was met with a life sentence. The Solicitor General referred his sentence to the Court of Appeal as "unduly lenient". At Wednesday's Court of Appeal hearing Mr Little KC said the case "crosses the exceptionally high seriousness test," because two of Prosper's three victims were children, and that all three were murdered one after another knowing they were being killed by their relative. Mr Little KC also said Prosper had intended to rape his sister Giselle and that his brother Kyle had pleaded with Prosper not to take his life. Read more: This was, Mr Little said, the "precursor to the long held intention" to kill primary school children aged four and five with the use of a firearm, an act the lawyer said was designed to get international notoriety and for others to match it and surpass it. "The seriousness of the case passed the enhanced exceptionality requirement and just punishment required the imposition of a whole life order here. "The Judge placed too much weight on what the offender did not do, rather on than what he did do and intended to do and what the ramification of this intended escalating level of mass killing would have been." Mr David Bentley KC, representing Prosper, told the Court that the minimum term means Prosper will not be released after 49 years but be eligible for parole. "A life sentence is a life sentence," said Mr Bentley KC, explaining that when Prosper is eligible for parole "he would be a pensioner." Mr Bentley KC said Prosper's mass killing plans were not "thwarted," but rather that the teenager had chosen himself not to carry on with the plot, explaining that Prosper had had come out of the home after killing his family and dumped the bag containing the firearm when he realised the school shooting plan was, he quoted Prosper, "no longer a runner". "It was his decision to stop. He stepped out on to the road and waved down a police car. "That perhaps indicates that despite the horrors that had taken place in the flat, something had clearly changed in his mind and nothing further was going to happen. He had voluntarily separated himself from the weapons." 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 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.
BBC News
16-07-2025
- BBC News
Luton killer Nicholas Prosper will not get whole-life jail term
The Court of Appeal has rejected a request for a teenager who murdered three members of his family to never released from Prosper, now 19, killed his mother Juliana Falcon, 48, his sister Giselle, 13, and his brother Kyle, 16, at their flat in the Leabank tower block in Luton in September March, he was given a 49-year minimum term in jail, but the solicitor general referred the case to the appeal court under the Unduly Lenient Sentences scheme and asked for a whole-life order to be Chief Justice Baroness Carr rejected the request, citing Prosper's young age and the fact he would be in his late-60s before he could be considered for release. She told the appeal court: "Appalling though these crimes were, we are not persuaded that anything less than a whole-life order was unduly lenient."It is a sentence that requires a youth of 18, as he was at the time of his arrest, to remain in custody until he is in his late 60s and one that might result in him never being released."Prosper watched the appeal via a video-link from HMP Belmarsh, often fidgeting in his part of his life sentence for murder, his minimum term of 49 years remains in place and it will be the mid-2070s before he is considered for release on parole. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
09-07-2025
- BBC News
Nicholas Prosper sentence appeal to be heard in July
A bid to have the sentence of triple murderer Nicholas Prosper increased to a whole-life order is due to be heard on 16 was jailed for life with a minimum term of 49 years after admitting killing his mother, brother and sister at their home in Luton on 13 September 19-year-old also pleaded guilty to weapons charges after plotting a mass shooting at his former primary school in the General Lucy Rigby KC referred the sentence to the Court of Appeal in April, branding it "unduly lenient". A spokesperson for the Attorney General's Office said at the time that Prosper "ought to have been given a whole-life order".Whole life orders are considered the harshest penalty available to courts since capital punishment was abolished. Prosper gunned down his mother Juliana Falcon, 48, and sister Giselle Prosper, 13, before stabbing his 16-year-old brother Kyle more than 100 then hid for more than two hours before flagging down police officers in a nearby street, showing them his loaded shotgun and 33 sentencing in March heard he wanted to go on and "be known posthumously as the world's most famous school shooter of the 21st Century".Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told Luton Crown Court: "The lives of your own mother, and younger brother and sister were to be collateral damage on the way to fulfil your ambition."Prosper's plan would have led to the deaths of 34 people in total: his family, two teachers, four-year-old pupils at his old school and then, finally, it was derailed when noise made by his family as they were being killed alerted neighbours in their tower block in the Marsh Farm area of Luton. While sentencing, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said she would not impose a whole-life order because Prosper was stopped from carrying out the school he was "indisputably a very dangerous young man", the risk to the public was met with a life sentence, she were changed in 2022 to allow defendants aged between 18 and 20 to receive whole-life orders in exceptional circumstances, but no one in that age bracket has received the sentence since judge said in March the threshold remained "exceptionally high"."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," she added."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."The case was referred to the Attorney General's Office by the shadow justice minister Kieran Mullan, who said the killings were "the most serious of crimes". Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Gulf News
21-04-2025
- Gulf News
UK teen who planned school massacre jailed for life
LONDON: A UK teenager who killed three family members and planned to outdo notorious US massacres to become 'the world's most famous school shooter of the 21st century' was on Wednesday jailed for a minimum of 49 years. Nicholas Prosper, 18 at the time of the killings, used a shotgun to kill his mother Juliana Falcon, 48, sister Giselle, 13, and brother Kyle, 16, who also received more than 100 knife wounds, at their home in Luton, north of London, in September 2024. 'Your ambition was notoriety. You wanted to be known posthumously as the world's most famous school shooter of the 21st century,' judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said on Wednesday as she sentenced the now 19-year-old. Prosper told police upon his arrest of his 'Friday the 13th' plan to also kill dozens of four- and five-year-old pupils and two teachers at a nearby primary school that he had previously attended, then himself. He said his aim was to conduct an attack more deadly than the US Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech massacres, but that the plan was interrupted when his mother woke up before he could kill his family in their sleep. The noisy struggle alerted neighbours, who called the police. After killing her he placed a novel with the title 'How to Kill your Family' on her body. 'You explicitly sought to emulate and outdo Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old American who shot dead 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut in 2012,' the judge said. 'You aimed for 34 deaths, one more than the deadliest school shooting of recent times in the United States of America, at Virginia Tech in 2007,' she added. Prosper had drawn diagrams of the classrooms at Luton's St Joseph's Catholic Primary School and written a note next to it reading 'kill all'. 'You filmed yourself acting out the killing in the kitchen,' said the judge. 'Utterly shocked' Prosper, who experts said showed symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), was handed a life sentence, with a minimum term of 49 years. Taking into account the time already served, he will spend a minimum of 48 years and 177 days in jail. 'You remain highly dangerous and it may be you will never be released,' the judge said, adding that Prosper, who delayed the hearing by refusing to leave his cell, had shown no remorse. After being asked to leave school in 2023, Prosper 'existed in an online world, choosing little real life contact with others', the court was told. Analysis of his internet activity revealed a fascination with 'notorious murderers, perpetrators of mass school shootings around the world and rapists', added the judge. A statement written by Ray Prosper, the perpetrator's father and former husband of Juliana Falcon, told court that 'the pain of our loss will never be healed. 'When I heard the horrendous news that day, part of my soul died too. This is a lose-lose situation for us all and we have lost four family members.' Bedfordshire Police Assistant Chief Constable John Murphy said the local police force was 'utterly shocked and appalled by the sickening actions of this individual'.
