UPDATE: Khan condemns 'lenient' sentences for killer teens (From Your Local Guardian)

UPDATE: Sadiq Khan condemns 'lenient' sentences for Ekram Haque's killers

11:41am Monday 26th July 2010 in Wandsworth By Guardian Reporter

Tooting’s MP has condemned sentences passed on two teenagers responsible for a pensioner’s death as too lenient.

Speaking after Leon Elcock and Hamza Lyzai received a total of eight years this morning, Sadiq Khan said he would write to the Attorney General to appeal the sentences.

Mr Khan was involved in the police effort to encourage witnesses to come forward after Ekram Haque was fatally attacked in the street.

He said: "The local community will be shocked by the leniency of these sentences.

"The whole community was affected the horrific acts of these people.

"Bearing in mind the devastating impact their actions had on their victims and their families, it's surprising that the punishments are so light.

"The Attorney General is able to appeal sentences, and I will be writing to him to ask him to use his powers in this case."

Elcock, 16, of Osborne Terrace, and Lyzai, 15, of Franciscan Road, received a total of eight years between them at the Old Bailey.

The paid admitted manslaughter, as well as charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, on June 16 this year.

Judge Martin Stephens sentenced Elcock to four-and-a-half years and Lyzai to three-and-a-half years.

Mr Haque was punched unconscious in front of his three-year-old granddaughter, Miriam, during a happy slapping attack outside the Idara-e-Jafferiya mosque in Church Lane, Tooting, last August.

He died one week later in hospital.

The court allowed the pair to be named today after requests from the press.

A third 15-year-old, whose identity is still protected, has been given a six-month detention and training order.

Earlier in the proceedings, he pleaded guilty to assault charges on random victims in the run up to the attack on Mr Haque.

Two other men - from Ewell and Thornton Heath - were attacked less than a minute before Mr Haque.

Keep checking wandsworthguardian.co.uk for the full report.