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Gay Streatham man's killers have sentences cut (From Your Local Guardian)
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Gay Streatham man's killers have sentences cut
10:10am Wednesday 12th November 2008
Two brothers who murdered a gay man at his West Norwood flat after one had spent the night with him have had their minimum jail terms slashed by a total of eight years at the Court of Appeal.
Igor Irinel, 22, and Sorin Abuculesci, 34, tied up Sri Lankan Mohamed Raheem and left him to suffocate to death at his flat in Sardeson House on the Holderness Estate on June 2 last year.
After spending the night with Mr Raheem after meeting him in a gay bar, Irinel ransacked his flat with the help of his brother before badly beating and finally murdering Mr Raheem.
After being found guilty by a jury in April this year, Irinel and Abuculesci were respectively sentenced at the Old Bailey to a mimimum of 30 and 28 years in prison.
But on Thursday three judges cut the sentences of both men to 25 years after their lawyers argued the trial judge had placed too much weight on how the men had abused Mr Raheem’s trust.
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Sri Lankan Mohamed Raheem was left to suffocate to death at his flat in Sardeson House
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Fred1, Surbiton says...
10:27am Sun 16 Nov 08
Now I'm not one of those people who insists that murderers should always be put away for life. After all, I recognise the fact that murdering two people is worse than murdering only one, and that the person who murders two people should therefore face a longer sentence than the person who murders only one - which is clearly not possible if people who have only murdered one person are never freed.
But an extra eight years on top of the sentence for murder, merely for "abusing" someone's "trust"? Sorry but I don't get it. Surely the fact that a life has been lost counts for rather more here, doesn't it? Or does it?
One of these days, the justice system will actually make itself *accountable* to Joe Public, instead of just thinking that they know better how to handle criminals in the community than the rest of us. But I wouldn't be surprised if hell froze over before that happened.