Judges 'should be able to recommend minimum terms for murder'

The Law Reform Commission has said judges should be able to recommend a minimum term to be served by murderers, depending on the gravity of their crime.

It is part of its consultation paper on mandatory sentences.

At present judges have to apply a life sentence for murder, but the law does not dictate how many years the killer should spend behind bars.

The Law Reform Commission found that in the 1980s a life sentence meant about seven and a half years, while recently a life sentence has increased to about 17 years.

Raymond Byrne, director of research with the Law Reform Commission, said there are differences between murderers.

Mr Byrne said: "Even within the definition of murder, between people who plan very far in advance, that is very different from a situation where somebody does something intentionally but there has not been all that long planning and pre-meditation.

"At the moment everybody gets the same sentences regardless of the background circumstances and we think that it doesn't really fit into the general idea of what people would expect from a sentencing system."