UK’s youngest murderers since James Bulger killing could get longer sentence as judges consider leniency appeal

Britain’s youngest knife murderers could be given a longer sentence as judges today consider if eight-and-a-half years was too lenient.

The boys were both 12 when they were found guilty over a brutal machete attack that killed Shawn Seesahai, 19, in Wolverhampton in November 2023.

Mr Seesahai was slashed in his legs and skull, while the fatal blow to his back was 23cm deep and almost came out his chest.

The boys are believed to be the youngest convicted of murder in the UK since James Bulger’s 11-year-old killers in 1993.

They accused each other of wielding the machete but were found to be jointly responsible for the attack, which trial judge Mrs Justice Tipples called “horrific and shocking”.

However, she said she also had to consider the boys’ “emotional maturity” and other factors based on their age and upbringing when she sentenced them to a minimum of eight and a half years in September.

The boys are now 13 but can’t legally be named due to laws protecting young offenders, with the judge saying their welfare outweighed the wider interest in open justice.

The bid to increase their sentence will be heard this morning at the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) scheme.

Relatives, victims and members of the public can use the scheme to ask the Attorney General’s Office to review sentences that seem unreasonably low.

If the three senior judges agree it was too lenient based on the evidence at the time, they can quash it and replace it with a new one. They could also leave it unchanged.

Mr Seesahai, originally from Anguilla in the Caribbean, had been staying in Birmingham while recovering from cataract surgery and hoped to become an engineer in the UK.

The attack happened when he and a friend encountered a group of children in a Wolverhampton park.

Prosecutors said despite doing nothing to provoke them, he was attacked after one of the boys deliberately “shoulder brushed” him and pulled out a machete.

Mr Seesahai’s friend escaped but the 19-year-old ended up on the floor where he was punched, kicked and repeatedly knifed.

The boys have been held in secure accommodation since the attack.