Skakel faces life in jail for murder

SENTENCING proceedings began yesterday for Kennedy family relative Michael Skakel, who faces a possible life in prison for the 1975 murder of his teenaged neighbour Martha Moxley.

Skakel, 41, was convicted in June of the murder of Martha Moxley, bringing to a close a quarter-century-old case of the 15-year-old girl bludgeoned to death on the lawn of her family's home in Greenwich, Connecticut.

A nephew of Ethel Kennedy, widow of the late Senator Robert F Kennedy, Skakel faces a minimum possible sentence of 10 years to life and a maximum of 25 years to life in prison.