Murder victim's father attacks new incentives for guilty pleas

12 April 2012

The father of a London murder victim has criticised moves that could allow killers who plead guilty to receive bigger cuts in their jail terms.

Richard Rees-Pulley, whose son Luke was stabbed and battered over the head with a vodka bottle at his flat in Hampton Wick, said it was beyond his comprehension that any murderer should be given time off their sentence.

In a letter to the Government's Sentencing Council, which is preparing to consider whether the "discount" for a guilty plea should be increased to up to 50 per cent, Mr Rees-Pulley says that, instead, offenders who fail to confess should be given extra time in jail.

Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has ordered a review of the system under which offenders receive time off in return for admitting their guilt. Those who confess at the first opportunity could have their sentences halved, instead of cut by a third as at present.

In his letter, Mr Rees-Pulley says: "With regard to murder cases, this should be regarded as the most appalling of all crimes so why any discount should be considered in the first place is beyond me." He says that if discounts are deemed necessary they should be kept to a minimum for such crimes.

Luke Rees-Pulley, 30, who worked as a bus driver, was left with 80 injuries in January 2005. Mark Turner admitted the murder the day before his trial and was given a minimum tariff to his life sentence of 13 years, partly in recognition of his guilty plea. Mr Rees-Pulley says Turner had "cynically exploited" the system and subjected his family to a "horrendous ordeal" from which his wife Sandy, who died last year, had never recovered.

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