Latest news with #NicholasProsper
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.
Metro
16-07-2025
- Metro
Triple murderer Nicholas Prosper spared whole life sentence after appeal refused
Evil triple shotgun murderer Nicholas Prosper has been spared a whole life sentence for a second time after senior judges agreed his 49-year term was not 'unduly lenient'. The 19-year-old spent a year plotting Britain's worst mass murder at his old school in September 2023. He had bought the firearm, along with 100 cartridges, a day earlier with the aim of killing 34 people, outdoing US school killings at Sandy Hook in 2012 and Virginia Tech in 2007. Those plans were only thwarted when his mum, Juliana Falcon, 48, woke early and discovered he had the shotgun. Prosper blasted her in the head at close range, placing a copy of the novel 'How to Kill Your Family' on her legs', before killing 13-year-old sister Giselle Prosper as she cowered under a table. He then shot his brother Kyle Prosper, 16, whom he also stabbed 100 times. The teen had bloody hands and was still dressed in his yellow and black killing outfit when he was arrested at 7.50am on September 13, still too early to target the school. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Sentencing Prosper at Luton Crown Court in March, High Court judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: 'You hadn't hated your mother or siblings and had had a good life with them. 'Your intention had been to kill them in their sleep and rape your sister. 'You had intended to leave the flat at around 8.30am, arrive at St Joseph's school at 9am, go into a class and pretend to rob the teachers then start shooting the four-year-olds, continuing in another classroom if necessary to achieve the target of 30 children. 'You wanted to cause the biggest massacre in 21st century as there had not been one. 'Your mother waking up at about 4.50am had triggered your activity early. You wished you had killed more.' At the Court of Appeal today, three senior judges declined to replace his life sentence, with a minimum term of 49 years, with a whole life order. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Giving their ruling, the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr said: 'Appalling though these crimes were, we are not persuaded that anything less than a whole life order was unduly lenient. 'It is a sentence which 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 which might result in him never being released. 'Finally, as the courts have stated repeatedly, no sentence can ever reflect the value of lives lost.' 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 such orders in exceptional circumstances, but none of the whole-life orders imposed since then have been on criminals in that age bracket. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb set out why he would not receive a whole-life term, in line with what both the prosecution and defence barristers had argued the previous day. She explained 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 pre-meditation or planning, or where one child is killed with similar pre-planning. The judge 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 is 'indisputably a very dangerous young man', the risk to the public is met with a life sentence, she said. 'The question is whether in ensuring due punishment, the seriousness of the offences overall is such that it is not possible, consistent with my duty to the public, to specify any minimum term,' the court was told. She said 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. 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. Tom Little KC, for the Solicitor General, told the Court of Appeal: 'What the facts reveal is a case which, on any view, was exceptional, even in the context of a murder. 'This reference turns on a single issue.' He continued: 'Was the judge wrong not to impose a whole life order, or was such a sentence the only sentence reasonably open to her, on the facts of this very unusual case?' Mr Little added: 'It was a murder of three people, two of them were children, including the intended rape of the sister. That did not take place, but it had been intended. 'The murders were committed one after the other in their own home, heard by neighbours and each was aware they were being killed by their son or sibling, and one pleaded, that is the brother, for his life.' Mr Little also said: 'It is difficult to see how this did not involve substantial premeditation and planning.' David Bentley KC, representing Prosper at the Court of Appeal, said that his client 'clearly had an undiagnosed neurological condition' which contributed to the crimes. More Trending He continued: 'It is very difficult to say how a 49-year sentence in itself, with all this background, can be said to be unduly lenient.' Mr Bentley acknowledged that if Prosper was aged 21 or over, it 'would have been very difficult to argue' that he should not have been given a whole-life order. He 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. 'As the court knows, if he remains considered to be dangerous, he never comes out anyway, so a life sentence is a life sentence, and the minimum term simply provides a time when it can be reviewed.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Five key questions answered about the Trump administration's Epstein files chaos MORE: Why was the Sycamore Gap tree cut down and who was responsible? MORE: The future of the Sycamore Gap tree has been decided
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Yahoo
Triple murderer should get whole-life order for ‘exceptional' crimes, court told
Triple murderer Nicholas Prosper should be given a whole-life order for the 'exceptional' killings of his mother and two siblings, the Court of Appeal has heard. Prosper was jailed for a minimum term of 49 years, less 188 days already spent in custody, in March after admitting killing his mother, Juliana Falcon, 48, sister Giselle Prosper, 13, and 16-year-old brother Kyle Prosper at their family flat in Luton, Bedfordshire, on September 13 2023. The 19-year-old also admitted weapons charges after plotting a mass shooting at his former primary school in the town. The Solicitor General has referred his sentence to the Court of Appeal as 'unduly lenient', claiming that he should be given a whole-life order, meaning that he would never be released. If three senior judges rule that the sentence should be increased, Prosper would become the first person aged between 18 and 20 to be given a whole-life sentence. Barristers for Prosper, who currently will not be released until at least his late 60s, told judges that the sentence 'cannot be said to be unduly lenient'. Tom Little KC, for the Solicitor General, told the hearing in London: 'What the facts reveal is a case which, on any view, was exceptional, even in the context of a murder.' He continued: 'It was a murder of three people, two of them were children, including the intended rape of the sister. That did not take place, but it had been intended. 'The murders were committed one after the other in their own home, heard by neighbours and each was aware they were being killed by their son or sibling, and one pleaded, that is the brother, for his life.' He added: 'It was meant to achieve national and international notoriety.' In written submissions, he said that a whole-life term was 'just punishment'. He said: '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.' After shooting dead his siblings and mother, and stabbing his brother 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. He had bought the firearm and 100 cartridges from a legitimate firearms dealer the day before the murders after forging a gun licence. Rules were changed in 2022 to allow younger defendants aged 18 to 20 to receive whole-life orders. Sentencing Prosper 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'. She stopped short of imposing a whole-life order in Prosper's case, as he was stopped from carrying out the school shooting, having murdered his family earlier than he intended after his mother woke up. She continued that while he was 'indisputably a very dangerous young man', the risk to the public was met with a life sentence. David Bentley KC, for Prosper, said on Wednesday that it was 'very difficult' to say how a 49-year sentence 'can be said to be unduly lenient'. He 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. 'As the court knows, if he remains considered to be dangerous, he never comes out anyway, so a life sentence is a life sentence, and the minimum term simply provides a time when it can be reviewed.' He continued: 'We accept that had it been someone aged 21 or over, the whole-life order would have been made. 'However, the judge, we say quite rightly, said this test is so high and there are factors here which allow her to stand back from that.' He also said that Prosper 'voluntarily separated himself' from the weapon after deciding not to carry out the school shooting. Prosper watched proceedings via a video link from HMP Belmarsh, at times with his head in his hands. The Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Mr Justice Wall and Mr Justice Goss could give judgment later on Wednesday.
