The court heard how children saw the aftermath of the fatal attack by teenagers who were aged just 14 and 15 at the time.
Rough Park in Telford where the murder of Peter Cairns, inset, took place last June
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." "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.
"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"."By your senseless violence that night you have also ruined your own lives and caused untold anguish to your own families," he said.
"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. 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.
"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.
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. 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.
"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. "It was serious gratuitous violence for which there was no conceivable excuse. I have no doubt that your violence acted as a direct encouragement.
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