Two 13-year-old boys believed to be Britain’s youngest knife murderers have had the minimum terms of their life sentences for the killing of Shawn Seesahai in Wolverhampton in 2023 increased from eight-and-a-half years to 10 years at the Court of Appeal.
The boys were both 12 when they were found guilty over a brutal machete attack that killed Seesahai,19, on November 13 last year.
The defendants were described during their sentencing in September as the country’s “youngest knife murderers” and were handed life sentences with minimum terms of eight-and-a-half years.
The solicitor general applied to increase those terms, claiming they were "unduly lenient".
Mr Seesahai was stabbed through the heart and lungs and suffered a skull fracture; one of his wounds to his back was 23cm deep and almost came out his chest during the attack on Stowlawn playing fields in East Park.
The boys, who cannot legally be named due to laws protecting young offenders, are believed to be the youngest defendants convicted of murder in the UK since Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were found guilty in 1993 when they were 11 years old of killing two-year-old James Bulger.
High Court judge Mrs Justice Tipples rejected a media application in July.
She said the welfare of the youths outweighed the wider public interest and open justice principles.
Both boys pleaded not guilty to murder, blaming each other for wielding the machete.
One of the youths admitted to possession of the knife before their trial at Nottingham Crown Court, and the other was found guilty of the same charge when they were both unanimously convicted of murder in June.
Sentencing the pair, she said the murder was “horrific and shocking” and that Mr Seesahai had “everything to live for”.
In a victim impact statement read to the sentencing hearing, the family of Anguilla-born Mr Seesahai, who was living in Birmingham, described his murder as tragic, unexpected and senseless, and having been committed “for no reason at all”.
It also said that “losing a child is a parent’s worst nightmare.”
The statement continued: “We are devastated as a family, totally heartbroken and confused.”
