Bedfordshire PoliceThe Court of Appeal has been asked to review the sentence of a teenager who killed three members of his family and planned a school shooting.
Nicholas Prosper, 19, has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 49 years for murdering his mother, brother and sister in Luton last year.
The bodies of Juliana Falcon, 48, Kyle Prosper, 16, and Giselle Prosper, 13, were found at their home in the Leabank Court tower block in September.
The government’s solicitor general has referred the case to appeal after a Conservative MP argued that Prosper should have received a whole life order instead, which would mean he would never be released from jail.
The Attorney General’s office had received a request to consider Prosper’s sentence under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.
In March, the Conservative shadow justice minister Kieran Mullan questioned why a whole life order was not imposed in a post on X and said he referred the case to the scheme.
An attorney general office’s spokesperson said: “I can confirm that the solicitor general has referred Nicholas Prosper’s sentence to the Court of Appeal.
“It will be argued that Prosper ought to have been given a whole life order. It is now for the court to decide whether to increase the sentence.”
ContributedWhole life orders are considered the harshest penalty available to courts since capital punishment was abolished.
The sentence can be considered in exceptional cases such as those where two or more people have been killed with a significant degree of pre-meditation, or where one child is killed with similar pre-planning.
Previously, an adult under the age of 21 could not be given a whole life order but this changed in 2022.
Offenders aged between 18 and 20 can now receive one when the seriousness of their crimes are “exceptionally high” even when compared to similar offences committed by those 21 and over.
If given a whole life order Prosper would become the youngest person to receive one.
