Every word the judge told teenage murderers as he detains them for stabbing man in heart

Peter Cairns, aged 26, was out with a friend trying out a moped in Silkin Way on June 11, 2021 when they were confronted by a group of teenagers.

It had been a fine sunny day and the park was busy with people, including children, some of whom saw Mr Cairns' body lying in bushes, the court heard. It was only a matter of chance that they had not witnessed him being stabbed.

One teenager admitted murder while two others were found guilty and another boy was acquitted during an 11-week trial that ended in May.

On Friday, a 15-year-old and two 16-year-olds were sentenced to detentions of between 11 and 13 years.

Mr Justice Spencer, speaking in court room one at Stafford Crown Court, said Peter Cairns had done nothing to harm or threaten them.

"He simply had the misfortune to be the victim of your random violence on a summer’s evening.

"The three of you were all armed with weapons, making your way to another area of Telford in the hope and expectation of a violent confrontation with a rival gang."

He said: "When you came across these two innocent young men, tinkering with their moped, you attacked them. You did so on the slenderest of pretexts that you did not like the tone of voice in which one of them encouraged you to walk on past them."

He said the youngest boy instigated the violence by pulling out a heavy steel wheelbrace. Mr Cairns' 21-year-old friend suffered bruising after being hit with it.

He encouraged another boy to “show him the thing”, the thing being a samurai sword.

"In fact it was a purely ornamental sword, without a sharpened blade, but your victim wasn’t to know that. It looked like a fearsome weapon."

The three were also sentenced for that assault.

"You all then turned your attention to Peter Cairns, who had done and said nothing. He had not even had the opportunity to intervene to protect his friend."

The boy who attacked Mr Cairns with a large kitchen knife carried out a "what must have been a frenzied attack, and with sufficient force to break the knife, separating the blade from the handle".

"The fatal wound penetrated the heart, resulting in catastrophic blood loss."

The judge accepted that they had been out to cause "really serious injury" but did not intend to kill Mr Cairns.

Mr Justice Spencer added: "Despite his injuries, Peter Cairns managed to run away from you some considerable distance along the track before eventually collapsing. He was found there by a member of the public a few minutes later. The emergency services were called and were soon in attendance. Everything that could be done to save him was done, but to no avail. He died that evening.

"Meanwhile the three of you had fled the scene, abandoning in the undergrowth nearby the weapons you had been carrying. None of you did anything to alert the emergency services that a man had been stabbed and was seriously injured, although you must have known that was the case.

"In those few minutes on that summer’s evening the three of you took the life of an innocent young man. At the age of only 26 he had his whole life before him. He was a much loved son, brother and uncle. In moving personal statements read to the court from his parents, his mother describes the devastating impact of his loss not only on her but on all the family.

"She relied on her son totally. He was her “safety blanket”. She has become a virtual recluse and has lost all confidence. Her mental and physical health have suffered badly. She describes him as the glue which held the family together.

"His father describes the family as 'frozen in time' at 11th June last year and unable to move on. He describes the terrible impact on his own physical and mental health. His son’s death has left a chasm that can never be filled.

"No sentence I pass can reflect the depth of the grief suffered by Peter Cairns’ family. For them, his loss is in a very real sense a life sentence."

He called the ages of the children "one of the most disturbing features of this tragic case".

The boy with the knife was 15 at the time, another 14, and the Samurai sword user was also 15.

"By your senseless violence that night you have also ruined your own lives and caused untold anguish to your own families," he said.

He added that murder there is only one sentence, life imprisonment. But because they were under 18 years of age when you committed this murder your life sentences have to be expressed as detention during Her Majesty’s pleasure.

"But make no mistake, the effect is exactly the same," he said. "Each of you will remain in custody for many years to come until you have served the minimum term which I am obliged by law to determine and fix in the case of each of you.

"After you have served that minimum term you will remain in custody until such time as the Parole Board considers it safe to release you. You will then remain on licence for the rest of your life, liable to be recalled to prison if you commit any further offence or breach the conditions of your licence."

He charged the youngest boy also for the murder but for a wounding with intent, committed only 11 weeks earlier and an offence of possessing an offensive weapon.

"It follows that at the time of the murder you were, in effect, on bail for that earlier matter whilst the police completed their investigation.

"He was able to get up and walk away. Fortunately the wounds were not serious, but that was only by good fortune. By your plea of guilty you admitted that you intended to cause him really serious injury.

"He was treated for two superficial cuts to the back of the left shoulder, 1cm and 2cms in length, and another superficial 2cm cut just above the left elbow."

The judge said: "All three of you were members of or associated with a gang in the Woodside area of Telford where you lived, known by its postcode as the TF7s. There had been issues and confrontations with a rival gang in Brookside, another area of Telford, known as the TF3s."

He added: "As chance would have it, no-one else was around at that precise time to see it. But there were plenty of people out and about on the Silkin Way that evening, including children. Some of them came across the aftermath and saw Peter Cairns being attended to at the side of the path. Several members of the public made witness statements as to what they had seen of your group before and after the fatal incident."

Of the knife-wielder the judge said: "You pleaded guilty to this offence of murder as soon as all necessary investigations had been conducted into your psychiatric and psychological background. It was nevertheless a courageous decision, and a clear reflection of your genuine remorse.

"You have some serious mental health issues, which form an important part of your mitigation. They are set out clearly in a range of psychological and psychiatric reports between January 2021 (prior to these offences) and July 2022. I have permitted you to appear remotely over a video link for this sentencing hearing because of concerns about your mental health and risks arising from those concerns.

"There is a helpful pre-sentence report dated 7th July 2022 which draws together the threads and provides additional valuable background information. I also have impressive character references from family members and friends which provide additional important insight into your background. All these documents have been collated in a bundle running to 137 pages.

"Your mother says in her letter to the court that the decline in your mental health seemed to arise after the death of your great-grandfather to whom you were particularly close, and the death soon afterwards of your great-grandmother. Prior to that you had been fully engaged at school, particularly with sport. Your mother expresses concern that, try as she might, she was unable to obtain the mental health support that you needed, in accordance with the recommendations that had been made.

"Traumatic life events such as the death of your great-grandfather and the separation of your parents had taken their toll, but you were also smoking cannabis. You had been admitted to a specialist unit at a young offender institution, where you were coping well. No transfer to hospital had been called for. There was no defence of diminished responsibility available. You admitted to the psychiatrist that you had been smoking up to three grams of cannabis a day, which was “messing with your head”, as you put it.

"You said you commonly carried a knife for self-protection as there had been incidents of gang-related violence in the area and you had previously been assaulted yourself. You could not remember why you stabbed the victim, but you recalled screaming and being overcome by intense anger.

"No doubt gang membership provided an attractive sense of belonging, attachment and identity, but also feelings of power and autonomy. You were under further stress at the time because your girlfriend was pregnant."

"Before credit for your guilty pleas, the appropriate minimum term in your case, taking into account the very modest separate sentence appropriate for the other assault, is 13 ½ years. With credit for plea of one-sixth, I round that down to 11 years."

The boy who wielded the knife was detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure for a minimum term of 11 years, less 395 days already served on remand. He was given no separate penalty for the offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The boy who who was carrying a blunt samurai sword had been 15 at the time of the murder and is now 16. He had two youth cautions for assault on police officers who were called to an incident at your his home in May 2019 he was 13 years old. The police had been called because he was having an argument with his mum, the court had heard.

The judge said: "This was a joint enterprise in which all three of you were armed with weapons, even if you did not actually use the sword on Peter Cairns. By the jury’s verdict you participated in the fatal attack by encouraging and intending to encourage the attack, intending that he should be caused really serious injury.

"You used the samurai sword in the initial attack on (Mr Cairns' friend) It was a frightening joint attack in which he was assaulted by two of you at the same time, with weapons, immediately before your attention turned to Peter Cairns."

He said he had the benefit of a pre-sentence report that provides a great deal of background, and throws light on the problems he was having to cope with at home over several years.

"It is plain that as a young child you suffered several very harmful experiences, including witnessing domestic abuse. You became a vulnerable child and outside the home over time you began to keep bad company, learning to misuse drugs, especially cannabis. Very prominent in your traumatic childhood experiences was the loss of your father who died tragically in a car accident when you were at the particularly impressionable age of only 7 years.

"You appear to have received no bereavement counselling, which may have contributed to your trying later to find a sense of belonging by involving yourself with older males who exploited you. Your education suffered. You were consistently excluded from school. More recently within the space of two years you suffered further bereavements with the deaths of your great-grandmother, your grandfather and your aunt."

He said: "I accept that you have expressed and feel genuine remorse, now that the enormity of your crime has really hit you, following the jury’s verdict. There is force in your counsel’s submission that this dramatic change in your educational achievement, away from bad influences in the company you were previously keeping, tends to highlight your prior immaturity."

"Weighing and balancing all the factors, I have reached the conclusion that the appropriate minimum term in your case, taking into account the very modest separate sentence appropriate for the other assault, is 13 years," he said The sentence was reduced by 395 days already served on remand.

For the boy who carried a wheel brace, the youngest, he said was the "instigator of the violence and you had previously committed another very serious offence only a few weeks earlier".

He added: "You committed the murder whilst effectively on bail for this offence, so allowing for totality it is appropriate to add 12 months to the minimum term for this associated offence.

"When you committed the murder you were only two months past your 14th birthday. You instigated the violence, striking the first blow.

"It was serious gratuitous violence for which there was no conceivable excuse. I have no doubt that your violence acted as a direct encouragement.

"Whether or not you actually struck Peter Cairns with the wheel brace makes little difference in the end, because this was a joint enterprise in which all three of you were armed with weapons."

He added that the boy was classified as vulnerable in that the National Referral Mechanism has found there were reasonable grounds to conclude that you were a victim of modern slavery, in relation to exploitation by older gang members.

Mr Justice Spencer said: "Despite your young age, you had acquired several convictions and youth cautions: for possessing cannabis, for assault occasioning actual bodily harm on two occasions, for burglary and for racially aggravated harassment. You were made the subject of a referral order receiving supervision by the youth justice service. Despite all that you went on to commit very serious offences. The reality, as demonstrated by the present offences of murder and wounding with intent, is that you were completely out of control.

For the last 13 months you have been detained on remand at a secure training centre , the only one of its kind in England. After a challenging start, you have recently shown signs of improvement and a willingness to engage with the help that is being offered, including educational opportunities. This is encouraging but there is still a very great deal of work to be done with you. During the trial itself, which lasted many weeks, you had to be conveyed every day from the south of England to Stafford and back. I was impressed at the way you cooperated with these demanding arrangements. I have read the letter which you have written to me in your own hand with considerable assistance from your mentor. I accept that you are now genuinely remorseful for the devastation you have caused by your offending.

"This troubled background, and your mental health problems, provide you with significant mitigation, although they do not begin to excuse or even explain fully your very serious offending. I take into account all the submissions made by your counsel, and the principles emphasised in the guideline on sentencing children and young offenders which she has identified in her written sentencing submissions."

In sentencing the boy he said: "Weighing and balancing all the factors, I have reached the conclusion that the appropriate minimum term in your case, taking into account an increase for the associated offences of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, wounding with intent, and possessing an offensive weapon, is 13 years. "

His sentence will be reduced by 395 days for the time already served on remand. He was given no separate penalty for the assault occasioning actual bodily harm. For the offence of wounding with intent on the other indictment, there will be a concurrent determinate sentence of two and a half years detention. On count two, possessing an offensive weapon, there will be no separate penalty.

In the case of each of the defendants there will be a victim surcharge order in the appropriate sum.