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Teen jailed for murdering boy
17/10/2006 08:15 - (SA)
London - A British schoolboy was ordered on Monday to serve at least 12 years of a life prison sentence for murdering an 11-year-old boy suffering from cystic fibrosis.
Justice Richard McCombe at Manchester crown court in northwest England sentenced Michael Hamer, 15, who pleaded guilty earlier on Monday before the start of his trial for the murder of Joe Geeling in March.
The victim's father and mother, Tom and Gwen Geeling, sat watching Hamer as McCombe sentenced the youth to life in prison, with a minimum of 12 years. Geeling looked at his wife and shook his head as the judge announced the minimum term.
Hamer, named for the first time after reporting restrictions were lifted, was sexually obsessed with Geeling and lured the victim to his home using a fake letter purporting to be from his deputy headteacher, the court heard.
He then subjected the boy, described by his parents as a "little angel", to a "sustained and savage attack", the court heard.
Hamer then used a bin on wheels to dump Geeling's body in a gully in a nearby park outside Manchester in March before it was found the following day.
Not premeditated
The judge said doctors had found that the killing was not premeditated but triggered by the victim's rejection of the defendant's sexual advance.
Passing sentence, the judge said Geeling had many friends and kept a "humorous and comical" outlook on life despite his medical problems.
"He was clearly an intensely loved member of a close and devoted family.
"You have taken Joe from them," McCombe told Hamer.
Boy threatened to tell of sexual advance
The judge said Hamer had harboured "significant feelings of distress from the absence of a relationship with your father" and suffered a "significant degree" of bullying at school.
"I am now told that, within the last few days, that you have admitted ... that you made a sexual advance to Joe who responded by referring to you as 'gay' and threatening to tell others of what you had done," the judge said.
"Joe, as you accept, had done absolutely nothing to encourage any such advance. The rejection of the advance was the immediate triggering event of what you did to Joe," the judge said.
- AFP
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