Three prisoners (including Jeremy Bamber) serving whole life sentences for murder have been told today by the European Court of Human Rights that their sentences do not amount to inhuman or degrading punishment and that the sentence is not disporportionate to the crime committed.
Judgement extracts:
"The Court held that in each case the High Court had decided that an all-life tariff was
required, relatively recently and following a fair and detailed consideration. All three
applicants had committed particularly brutal and callous murders. To date, Mr Vinter had
only served three years of imprisonment, Mr Bamber 26 years and Mr Moore 16 years.
The Court did not consider that these sentences were grossly disproportionate or
amounted to inhuman or degrading treatment."
"In the case of Mr Bamber, the High Court concluded that, given the number of murders
involved, the presence of premeditation, the submissions by the victims’ next-of-kin as
well as reports on the behaviour and progress he had made in prison, there was no
reason to depart from the view held in 1988 by the Lord Chief of Justice and the
Secretary of State that he should never be released."
The way in which this works is that the judgement is not immediately final and it can be referred by a party before being made final in the following way:
During the three-month period following its delivery, any party may request that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the Court. If such a request is made, a panel of five judges considers whether the case deserves further examination. In that event, the Grand Chamber will hear the case and deliver a final judgment. If the referral request is refused, the Chamber judgment will become final on that day.
The full judgement can be read here: