This Is Why We Have A 'Killer Kid' Problem...

A 16-year-old shooter who blasted a 15-year-old boy in the face with a shotgun has today had his attempted murder sentence...

'Increased', she says, hopefully? 

...slashed by Appeal Court judges.

*sighs* 

Talbot-Lummis, then 16, was handed an extended sentence made up of 24 years in custody and five years on extended licence. However, three senior judges at the Court of Appeal reduced the sentence for attempted murder to 18 years in custody with an extended five years on licence on Tuesday.

Six years off the sentence? For someone who blasted another kid in the face with a shotgun? 

At a hearing in London, Talbot-Lummis appeared via video link to challenge the length of his sentence. His barrister Diana Ellis QC said the sentence was 'manifestly excessive'. She argued that the sentencing judge had failed to properly consider the amount of mitigation the teenager had, including his youth, 'dysfunctional' upbringing and the bullying he said he faced from his victim.

The usual excuses. Ones already considered by the trial judge.  

During the original sentencing, Judge Levett said he did not accept 'there was bullying of the scale or the degree suggested'.

So what makes these judges any better? 

Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mr Justice Julian Knowles and Mr Justice Cotter, said the trial judge was 'in the best position to assess the evidence'. He continued: 'What, with respect, he did not address however was the full effect of the bullying, whatever its level, may have been on the appellant.'

How do you know he didn't? 

They also said the sentencing judge should have taken Talbot-Lummis's youth more into account and reduced the sentence further from the number of years that would have been given to an adult. Lord Justice Holroyde said: 'There was, in our view, no basis for treating the appellant as being more mature than others of his age.'

There's no basis for thinking that you're a bunch of simpering bleeding hearts, either. And yet, I do.